


Fairies and Dragons

by tehbyulteh



Series: The Unnaturals [1]
Category: ASTRO (Band), SEVENTEEN (Band), iKON (Korea Band), 여자친구 | GFriend (Band)
Genre: F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Magic-Users, Vampires, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2018-12-22 11:12:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 54,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11966184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tehbyulteh/pseuds/tehbyulteh
Summary: Choi Yuna, the new replacement for the Fairy of Love, is tasked with an important task to help her keep her name as the Fairy of Love – that is, to find seven golden hearts. You see, Yuna is what we call an unnatural. Unnaturals are yes, plainly, unnatural. They’re not humans. They’re vampires, werewolves, and many more. That makes our heroine, Yuna, a fairy. To be more exact, the new Fairy of Love. Adolescent Unnaturals are supposed to reside in Unnatural High, a school in Busay Falls. To humans, it is just a waterfall located in Southeast Asia. But to Unnaturals, it’s their city. And this is where our beloved fairy would need to find her seven golden hearts – hearts that bloomed out of intense, pure love. But finding these pure loves is not easy. Especially as she, herself, is a fairy with feelings and emotions. Will she finish her mission in her first term or will she leave Busay Falls at the end of the semester?





	1. Welcome to Unnatural High (Busay Falls Campus)

 

* * *

**** Yuna is about to choke-slam someone. She’s definitely not taking this. Today was supposed to be a good day! She was just elected as the Fairy of Love for Unnatural High – Busay Falls campus as Miss Kim Yong-sun was elected as Busay Falls Love Fairy Representative, but yeah. Her day’s getting worse. She interacted with some humans before going into the waterfalls, and she got a tomato thrown at her face because she saw the love life of that human and she blurted it out that the woman was gonna die single.  _ She  _ _ had it coming _ , Yuna consoled herself. Then after that, she flew her way to the waterfall, so her wings got soaked. She has to wait for twelve hours for it to dry. And now, the line to the entrance of the school is  **so. freaking. long.** She could’ve found a golden heart already, given her waiting time. She glanced over at the Unnaturals on the line, and it’s noticeable that they’re in pairs and Yuna is just disgusted.

As  **_THE_ ** Fairy of Love, the girl can see things other Unnaturals can see. That is, their  _ “red string”.  _ A string on your ring finger that can extend, but can never be broken. The string basically tells who you’re gonna end up with, or who you’re fated to be with. And even after reincarnations, it will never change. Even if the other half dies, well, you’d just have to wait for the reincarnation to show up. Hassle, but she can see those stuffs. And as  **_THE_ ** Fairy of Love, it’s her task to make them meet without revealing their fates and the reason why she’s disgusted is this.

You see, the red strings means soulmates, right? Yellow strings means hatred, blue strings means un-fated relationships, white strings means family and purple strings means sexual desires. Unlike the red string, these strings are just located randomly on their other fingers. There are two pairs in front of her. One guy, most likely a werewolf, considering the fur outfit, and an elf, because she’s small, are holding hands. They have a blue string. In short, they’re dating but they’re not meant to be dating. The wolf’s red string is connected to the girl from the other pair. Yuna thinks she’s a Merfolk. But that mermaid’s blue and purple strings are connected to the guy she’s with, probably a vampire.  _ But wait, the drama isn’t over.  _ Apparently, Vampire guy has a purple string connected to Elf girl. Yuna sighed. Yes, being the Fairy of Love has lots of perks, but damn, it’s stressful.

“Fairy, you’re going to Busay Falls Lovers’ Lane on your own?” Yuna snapped out of her thoughts and looked up. Tall person alert. But she didn’t look up that much, Yuna’s pretty tall. She’s wearing the same uniform as Yuna, so she figured that she’s a fellow student. The person looks like a vampire to her. She’s taller than her, maybe around 175-178 centimetres.

Wait, wait.

**_“LOVERS’ LANE?!”_ ** Yuna almost cursed out loud after those two words. She’s been in Busay Falls ever since she was born but a LOVERS’ LANE? “You mean, like, a dating place?”

The tall girl nodded, pulling out a humanly chocolate bar out of her uniform pocket. “If you are taking that lane to get to Unnatural High, you’re probably gonna get to school at maybe 10pm or something.”

Yuna blinked. Okay, she did not expect that. She quietly stepped out of the line and joined the girl. “Thank you.” She shyly thanked her.

The girl chewed on her food. “No problem. You new here?”

Yuna shook her head in response. “No.”

“Then what happened?” The two began walking next to each other into the town inside Busay Falls. The town isn’t big. There’s the city hall, the water works, the electricity supply area, the hospital, the houses, and the school.  And some of them are up there, sticking next to the walls. Those houses are owned by Strzygas. They can transform to owls so flying isn’t really a problem for them.

“I wet my wings.” Yuna answered as she fluttered her wings a bit before making it disappear. “I’ve been training at Unnatural High, though.”

She nodded. “Looks like it. Trainee Fairies are not supposed to show themselves until election.”

Yuna, at the back of her mind is amazed at the girl’s knowledge. “You know a lot.” Yuna mentally face-palmed when she realized that she has yet to introduce herself. “I’m Choi Yuna. Fairy of Love.”

The other girl smiled and gave her a piece of her chocolate bar. “I’m Kim Sojung. Banshee.”

Yuna gasped. “The ones who scream when someone’s gonna die?”  **_Very witty, Yuna._ ** She thought, with sarcasm as she accepted the chocolate.

Sojung chuckled. “That’s me. Luckily, I’ve only screamed twice in school.”

“How on earth can you say that so easily?”

“Instinct.”

Yuna doesn’t know if Sojung is humorous or her humour taste is just old. Soon, though, they arrived at the school. Yuna’s arrival today is a lot different to her usual arrivals. Back when she was a trainee, She doesn’t need to wear the uniform, her wings are kept hidden, she had to live off the other fairies’ bossy asses, well, thank you heavens that Yongsun wasn’t as bossy as the other fairies, and she can go to school late. Now, she has to follow the protocols, such as going to school at 9am, wearing the school uniform, picking the proper tie and getting her own on-campus office. Yuna bid Sojung goodbye and she walked to her office. Her office is directly in front of the Fairy of Knowledge’s in the first floor. She doesn’t really know her. In her time as a trainee, they never interacted. Rumour has it that the fairy’s introverted and shy, so she doesn’t interact with the trainee fairies at all. Yuna didn’t mind the closed door, and she entered her office.

It’s a room filled with pink. The shelves and everything else are all pink. The curtains are pink. The tables and chairs are pink. The only thing that stood out was the yellow folder on top of her desk. She picked it up and opened it, revealing a note in a yellow post-it on top of multiple yellow-coloured papers with printed notes and stuffs. Yellow is the colour of the Fairy of Knowledge, so she figured that it was from the shy girl next door.

> “ _ I heard of your semestral task, so I wanted to sincerely help you out ^_^. I listed down the current top couples that you can get the pure hearts from. I know only you can see the strings. Please take this as my help as the Fairy of Knowledge. I heard you’re my age, and I really want another fairy in the same age as me. Anyway, their data and the other things you may need are in this folder. Please consult me next door or in the library if you have questions. _

_ ¬ Love, Lee Lu-Da Fairy of Knowledge” _

Yuna smiled and she looked over at the people, scanning the file. “From the top couple until the most unlikely couple, she has it all.” Amazed, Yuna put the file down and sat on her seat. The only classes she takes are Physical Education, Flight, Potions and Archery. P.E is for 3 in the afternoon, Flight is for Sundays, Potions class begins at twelve and Archery is for Saturdays, so she has plenty of time to do research. She began with the top couple.

**_Top couple #1. Kim Jiyeon, Choi Seungcheol. Inseparable it girl and it boy. Jiyeon is a regular angel, but she’s the head cheerleader. Kids from other schools fawn over her beauty but apparently her boyfriend is vampire royalty, Choi Seungcheol._ **

And many more stuffs are listed but she had to stop reading because she was interrupted by a knock. But that knock didn’t even bother for a “come in” as a familiar figure entered the room. “I knocked, didn’t I?” Yuna wasn’t able to complain as Sojung already entered the room. “Whoa, your room is too pink. Like how Jennie’s room is full of blue.”

Yuna shrugged. “Well, we fairies are different.” She noticed Sojung casually sitting on her consultation chair. “Don’t you have class?”

Sojung blinked, twice. “I don’t go to classes.”

“EH?!” Shocked, Yuna took her seat, wanting to listen to Sojung. “Why?”

The other girl shrugged. “I’m just too cool for it, you know.” Yuna wasn’t buying it, though. She just stared at Sojung, eyes asking for an explanation. “Kidding. I don’t have classes until 11, and my date ditched me.”

That just reminded Yuna. She checked out Sojung’s hand.

A red, white, blue, yellow  **_AND GOLD?!_ ** Yuna blinked twice when she saw the gold string tied on Sojung’s hand. A gold string would mean a  **_golden opportunity._ ** A Fairy of Love can easily squeeze out the Gold Heart if it came from people who are tied with the golden string. She checked where it was connected, but of course, they were the only people in the room. “Yuna.” Sojung called out, making Yuna snap out of her thoughts and ~ideas~ to match Sojung with someone.

“Yes?”

“You do know that you’re not a student here unless you go to the cafeteria for the lunch-mess, right?”

Yuna raised a brow. “Lunch mess?”

* * *

 

Apparently, the Lunch-mess means one thing. The cafeteria is in a mess. Back when she was a trainee, she wasn’t allowed to go to the cafeteria, so she had to go out to buy her food. The cafeteria is much more humanized than you would think it would be. It’s white, in contrast to the dark brown halls. The chairs and everything are white. The food comes in different diets. Animal organs are served for vampires, werewolves, and other animal-transforming Unnaturals who have this thirst for blood and various dietary foods for other Unnaturals. But during the Lunch-mess, which Yuna suspects is every day, the white in the tables turns ugly. No wonder the Fairy of Service is the one who’s stressed and needs help all the time. Yuna looked up. There are seats up on the higher floors, apparently for the kids who can fly. She can, too, if her wings weren’t soaked.

Almost every kid in school is in the room, so Yuna is seeing strings everywhere.  _ The couple making out on the side hate each other, great.  _ Yuna smirked with sarcasm. She shook her head and looked at Sojung’s hand, which was holding another chocolate bar. The white, blue and yellow strings aren’t connected to anyone, because those three people may be elsewhere, but the gold and the red ones are. With her eyes, she followed the gold and red strings.

The red one is connected to the pale guy.  **_Oh shit._ ** Yuna cursed as she realized that she’s seen him before. He’s tall and he’s well-built. Not muscular like Johnny Bravo, but the thin-muscular. He has jet-black hair, and he’s seen with a girl. He’s Choi Seungcheol. This guy is Sojung’s soulmate.

But here’s the catch.

The gold string is connected to someone else.

Yuna’s heart jumped.

He has dark-brown hair, his jaw and facial mole stood out the most. He’s taller that Sojung’s soulmate, and his smile beamed across the room. His diet composes of spicy ass food, making Yuna think that this guy is a Draconian, a half-human, half-dragon. This guy and Sojung can give her a golden heart.

She’s the fairy of love, but she didn’t know that someone can have a golden string and a red string, but to different people.

“HELLHOUND COMING THROUGH, MOVE IT, FAIRY!”

**_Ouch,_ ** Yuna was able to mouth before she passed out as some hellhound, the unnaturals who are like werewolves, only fiery dogs, crashed on her.

  
  



	2. Love Potions

* * *

“Way to go, on giving the fairy a good first day, Kwon Soonyoung.” Through her closed eyes, Yuna can hear people – cross that.  **_Unnaturals_ ** talking. The first person sounds warm and sweet, like milk and honey together –  **_Yummy._ ** Yuna thought.

“Heh, sorry.” The Soonyoung-person apologized. Yuna noted his sharp and fun tone. He seems to be someone who would be fun to be with.

“Well, Soonyoung, wait for her to wake up and apologize, no? Do you have class? Seokmin will excuse you.” Sojung’s voice resounded as Yuna recognized it, as well. “Because you better join her for her first day or else we’re gonna be talking very long for today, Soonyoung.”

She heard one of them sigh. “I have transformation class right now. Seokmin doesn’t take that. He only has Fire Magic class with me.” His voice is the same as the second person, making Yuna conclude that he’s Soonyoung. “Man, Hellhound curriculum is so hard to follow.”

Hellhound curriculum?

This made Yuna open her eyes and sit. There are three people, one of them, the guy who had Sojung’s gold string attached, helped her up with a smile. “Are you okay, Fairy?” He asked her. “Sorry about Soonyoung, he’s really playful.” She remembered the milk-honey-like tone, making her conclude that he was the first person to speak.

“I’m fine, thank you.” Yuna shook his hand away, making his hands retreat back to his sides, and his smile change to a half-smile. She looked up and met Soonyoung, the Hellhound’s eyes. “What’s up with the Hellhound curriculum?”

“Ah, Yuna.” Sojung called her out. “Soonyoung transferred here two weeks ago from Balkan Peninsula in Greece, and Hellhounds are new in Busay Falls, so their curriculum is not as developed as ours.”

Yuna nodded and she looked at Soonyoung’s hands that were placed on top of her bed. She only realized now that she’s in the infirmary. Its wall is dark brown, and the things that stand out are the white-coloured beds, the third-covered one-part not-so-translucent curtains that would block patients from one another and the nurses’ table. Going back to Soonyoung’s hand, she noticed that other than the red string, Soonyoung doesn’t have any other strings, including the golden one. As she expected, Soonyoung’s red string doesn’t connect to anyone. Probably because Sojung’s string is already connected to the guy, Seungcheol and the other guy, the Draconian’s string doesn’t connect to anyone, as well. While hers, well, she doesn’t see it. It’s already in their fairy laws. So basically, anyone whose string is connected to her would have unmatched strings.  “Are you adjusting well?” Yuna asked him suriously.

“I’m adjusting fine, thanks.” Soonyoung answered with a wide smile. It’s the type of smile that made Yuna smile back at him. “Your smile is pretty.” He complimented her, making her smile wider. “I’m Soonyoung, he’s Seokmin.” He said as he pointed at the Draconian whose golden string is connected to Sojung. “Can you guess his race?”

“Draconian.” She nonchalantly answered. Yuna began scanning Seokmin from head-to-toe. She noticed the scales on his hand, the dragon crest in the middle of his tie and his tan skin. She was sure he’s Draconian.

He smirked and smiled brightly. It was too bright to the point that it almost cost Yuna’s eyes. “You’re good.”

“I’m a fairy.”

“With wet wings, may I add?”

Yuna smiled at his sense of humour –  **_definitely better than Sojung’s bad joke earlier._ ** Yuna looked at the clock over at the wall and she frowned. “Sojung, it’s 11.”

Sojung blinked and she looked at her own watch and sighed. “Oh well, Seokmin, come on. We have swordsmanship class.” Sojung stood up and she tugged on Seokmin’s shirt. In Yuna’s eyes, the golden string just got tighter.  **_What could be the love that’s binding these two together?_ ** Yuna asked herself as the two buzzed out of the room. “See you!” They both waved at Soonyoung and Yuna goodbye and the latter waved back in return. Yuna pushed the blanked off of her body and slid down off the bed.

“Aren’t you gonna stay up and rest?”

Yuna just shook her head. “You just hit me, I’m not that hurt. Although my wings are still wet, I have Potions class at twelve.”

Soonyoung smiled widely once more. His eyes look like the clock when it’s 10:10. “Then we have an hour both. Do you have anything you want to do for an hour?”

**_Find golden hearts._ ** Yuna wanted to say, but she wasn’t sure whether to trust Soonyoung. “Roam around school, maybe? Like, where are the crowds at?”

“Over in the basketball court, fawing over the basketball team.”

Yuna raised a brow. “And by the basketball team, you mean?”

Soonyoung beamed and he held her wrist, careful not to hold her hand. “Let’s go watch them!”

* * *

 

Maybe it’s just Yuna, but she didn’t like the idea of spending her ~precious~ 1 hour watching girls scream “Choi Seungcheol”, “Lee Chandong”, “Hong Joshua” or something like “Kim Seokwoo”. But the hellhound next to her is enjoying the games, making casual “oohs” when Seungcheol doesn’t make the hoop and eventual cursing when the people wearing black, aka, not Seungcheol’s team makes it. She just sat next to him with a smug expression on her face, and an uninterested look to match it up. What DO interest her are the ties on their hands. The players all have the variety of colours, something she didn’t find on someone who’s  _ maybe  _ as innocent as Soonyoung. Purple is surprisingly dominant with the basketball players. In the ten players who are playing right now, only two of them don’t have the purple string. In Yuna’s eyes, it’s eight guys who like other people physically. A downvote from someone who thinks the boys are handsome. But what interested Yuna is this.

The captain of the people wearing black had a yellow string attached to Seungcheol, but a purple string attached to Kim Jiyeon, the cheerleader who’s Seungcheol’s current girlfriend. And the girl has  **_looooooots_ ** of yellow strings. Maybe six or maybe even seven. To Yuna, that’s the biggest count she ever got. She once met someone who had twelve purple strings, but this is the first time she met someone with more than 5 yellow strings.  **_Well, this girl has lots of hatred in her hands._ ** Yuna commented. Luda probably wrote it in, but she didn’t get the time to read –

“I gotta gay.” She nudged Soonyoung, with his eyes and mouth wide open. “No, I meant, gotta go. Um, see you later, I guess?”

Although confused, Soonyoung didn’t have the choice but to allow her to leave. She dashed out of the basketball gym and to her office. She’s thankful that her office is just on the first floor, and a thirty-second run from the gym, at a that. She slammed the door shut, not too loud, but still loud and she plopped down on her seat as she began browsing through the files. She flipped through the first page, further describing the “it-couple”. As she expected, even the tiniest details about their lives, the Fairy of Knowledge knows about it.

> **_You cannot not see them without the other. I heard Jiyeon takes classes with Seungcheol. She may be – or not – obsessed with him or she may be dating him due to the status quo. I heard rumours that she hates the following for dating her exes before – Nam Dawon, Kim Sojung, Bora and Im Nayeon but she and Im Nayeon hates each other even before that. Sojung looks nice, I don’t know why she hates her..._ **

**_She’s an angel, but she has lots of rivals._ ** Yuna sighed. She flipped over to Choi Seungcheol’s page. His clique was written there, and it made her raise a brow.

  1. Choi Seungcheol
  2. Yoon Jeonghan
  3. Hong Joshua
  4. ******_Kwon Soonyoung_**
  5. ****Wen Junhui
  6. ****Jeon Wonwoo
  7. ****Lee Jihoon
  8. ******_Lee Seokmin_**
  9. ****Kim Mingyu
  10. ****Xu Minghao
  11. ****Choi Vernon
  12. ****Boo Seungkwan
  13. ****Lee Chan



Apparently, the boy who attacked her earlier and the boy who was nice to her are in the same clique.  **_Soonyoung and Seokmin’s clique is in the popular ones, huh?_ ** Of course, she wondered how did Soonyoung get into that clique if he just transferred two weeks ago, but she might as well should just ask him later on.

* _ ting!*  _ She heard her alarm ring, and she threw a glare at her desk clock. It’s twelve, so time for Potions class. She heaved a sigh and she picked up her bag, with some herbs that might come in handy for class.

* * *

 

The Potions classes are held in the basement of the building. It doesn’t lose the brown interiors of the school, and the classroom for the class has shared desks with potion bottles in front of them and a two mixing pots for every desk. Most of the Unnaturals who attends these classes are fairies, wizards, merfolks (the mermaids) and elves. Some Unnaturals take it for fun and for extra learning but most of them drop this class soon because of the after-effects of potions.

“Good morning, class.” The Professor greeted. She looks quite young for a Professor, and Yuna knows her. “To the newbie,” She scanned the crowd of twenty students and found Yuna. “You know me, right?”

“Yes, Miss Dara.”

The professor is Professor Dara Park. She used to be the Fairy of Knowledge back then when Yuna was still a child. “Okay, let’s get class started. I’ll go with where we left off last time, and luckily, our newbie has this potion mastered.” She stopped for a bit and she glanced at Yuna. “Love Potions.”

Yuna made a small “oh” and nodded.

“So, about love potions. These potions are brews that can make the drinker fall in love to the person who gave it to them. Let’s say for example is Jung Wheein here, gives Choi Minki the love potion, Choi Minki falls for her. We can typically make this with Strgyza egg shells, you can buy those in the market for a cheap 1 penny, rose thorns, peppermint, Wolfsbane flower and of course, Jade Dust.” She used her magic dust and the jars of ingredients soon followed her command, that is, to line up on the teachers’ table. “The thing is this, even if you use the potion, you can’t make someone fall for you. It doesn’t work that way. And the potion’s working depends on how well you made it, how pretty or handsome you are, how heavy the drinker is and how much you made them drink.” She tossed all the ingredients into the pot in front of her. “For your task today, individually get a bottle and feed this to someone you would want to feed.  I want to see some drama today.” She threw a smug smile at Yuna, who’s now cringing with her face. “To pass this lesson, you would have to make the one who drank shout that he or she loves you at the school grounds. I wanna see drama, too, so make it wildt, children.” She smiled brightly, as if she’s not going to do something funny. “Alright?”

Yuna sighed as she glanced at the pot next to her. Her seatmate stood up and took his bottle, and went to the front to take some from the original recipe. Yuna did the same and she sat back down. She mixed her potion and she looked at the herbs in her bag. She brought Mistwalker hair and ferna, two vastly different herbs.  **_This is a bad idea._ ** She thought to herself. Mistwalker Hair can shorten the effect of the potion while ferna can enhance the effect of the potion.  **_Well, that can make my job quicker._ ** She said as she tossed the herbs to the pot, saying goodbye to every last bit of her face for the day.

* * *

 

She scanned the list on who will most likely be her “ _ victim”,  _ but Yuna doesn’t have a clue on who should drink her potion. She would want to ask someone, but she doesn’t know ANYONE in this school except Sojung, Seokmin and Soonyoung.

“ **_I LOVE YOU, JUNG WHEEIN!”_ ** Well, her classmate is doing well. Jung Wheein, her elf classmate, just finished her task. Lucky her, she picked a non-dating classmate. From the office, Yuna can see the school grounds. She stood up and saw what would happen next, and she saw a student transform to a black dragon, and that dragon chased Wheein’s drinker. According to Luda’s data, Jung Wheein is currently dating that dragon, or Draconian. And according to the data, he’s the scariest Draconian in Busay Falls. He’s Kang Dongho, and in fairness to them, they’re tied by a red string. Yuna shook her head, fearing on what may happen to her. While she’s contemplating, she noticed three more Draconians, one of them, notably, is Seokmin, and they began transforming to dragons and holding Dongho down. Seokmin is a blue dragon, and they’ve been trying to hold him down. Eventually, they did, but it took them ten minutes. Yuna hoped that this was enough drama for the day.

**_“HA SUNGWOON-OPPA, I LOVE YOU!”_ ** Or maybe not. She sighed as she sat back down and massaged her temples. She soon heard a knock on the front door.

“Come in.”

When it opened, Seokmin showed up with his typical smile. His scales are still visible, meaning he had just finished toning his dragon form down. “They told me I’d find you here.” He came in and Yuna used her magic dust to pass some tea. He sat down on the consultation chair, and she gave him the tea.

“Is everything alright?”

He shook his head, almost amused. “I’m surprised you don’t know anything about the happenings outside.”

Yuna rolled her eyes and collapsed on her table. “I hate this so much.” She grumbled. “I don’t want to do this because um, I’m the Fairy of Love, why am I allowing fake love?”

**_“LEE CHAN, I LOVE YOU!”_ **

She growled. “There goes another one.”

“I actually came here because of that.”

Yuna raised a brow at Seokmin. “Huh?”

_ “I’ll do the love potion for you.” _

“Why would you do that? If you wanted to lose your face, you should’ve gotten plastic surgery for dragons!”

“Listen to me, Yuna.” He raised up his hand, making her automatically see his strings. She remarked that it’s only of three colours. Red, white and gold.  “I know you see fate strings. I’m not dating anyone right now. No one will get mad at you for making me scream, I love you.”

Frustrated, Yuna crossed her arms in front of her face. “Hey, dragon, we just met. How can you confess to me that easily? It doesn’t work that way.”

“I’ll still do it. I won’t drink the potion, I’ll just yell it out. Weak potions have little to no effect on Draconians.”

Yuna gulped, and Seokmin stared at her strongly.

Before Yuna was able to say anything, another shout was heard.

**_“CHOI YUNA I LOVE YOU!”_ **

The two of them, both Seokmin and Yuna’s eyes went to the school grounds, and there they saw him, Kwon Soonyoung, yelling it.

**_Soonyoung-hyung got ahead of me, again._ ** Seokmin thought to himself as he frowned. He crossed his arms and his scales begin showing once more. Yuna looked back at him and saw a yellow ribbon tie on his finger, and the golden string left his finger. She looked at him in the eye with a wide eye, curious as to why the gold string slipped off,

And why was a yellow string slipped on.

* * *

 

 


	3. The First Heart

* * *

Soonyoung, brightly smiling, entered the Love Fairy's office, and well, he got a strong-ass smack at the back of his neck from the fairy. She's fuming, and Seokmin is just at the side, sipping his tea. "What the hell did you just do?"

He blinked. "Huh? I didn't want you to do it, so I did it without your permission."

"That was stupid, Soonyoung."

"But it was fun." He reasoned with another smile.

"It was immature!"

"It was called saving a face." She noticed that his hands now has a light blue string.  **_Oh, why is the blue string being tied up now?_ **  Yuna sighed at the complications of the strings. She looked across her desk and noticed Luda's note.  **_She told me to come find her if I had problems._ **

"Both of you get out. Now." She went to her desk and picked up her bag, her potion bottle, and her blazer. “I’m locking this room, I’m going out.”

Seokmin stood up and smiled bitterly, but Yuna failed to notice its bitterness. Soonyoung frowned but he nodded. “Let’s go, Soonyoung-hyung.”Seokmin instructed him. “Ah, before I forget.” He looked back at Yuna. “There’s a club for singers. You can join us if you want.”

Yuna raised a brow. “But I’m already in a club.”

“It’s not gonna hurt for you to try, right?”

Yuna shrugged and the two boys left her room. She soon followed after as she went on and knocked on her neighbor. “Fairy of Knowledge, it’s the Fairy of Love.” After three knocks, the door opened, and the Fairy of Knowledge showed up. She’s small, and she hasshort, blonde hair. Her uniform is too big for her to the point that the supposedly above-the-knee skirt becomes below-the-knee. “Hi!” She greeted shyly, her blush is also showing.

“Hey.” Yuna greeted back.

“C-come in!” She stuttered and opened the door. When Yuna came in, she noticed that the Fairy of Knowledge’s office is as yellow as her pink office. Luda noticeably has a humanly laptop, a humanly phone, and a humanly printer, in contrast to the potion laboratory she has in her office. The walls are also filled with books, and there’s a bed behind her table, too. Yuna sat on the consultation chair and Luda served her some tea. “It’s apple tea.”

“Thank you.” Yuna sipped some of it. “It’s good.”

“It’s Lipton.”

Yuna blinked at Luda’s sudden comeback, and she placed her teacup down. “I see.”

The awkward silence soon died out. “What brings you here?” Luda asked.

“I have a few questions regarding everything.” Yuna sighed and she began fidgeting.

“Like what?”

“You said you knew about my task, how much do you know about it?”

Luda smirked.  **_She must know a lot._ ** Yuna concluded. “As the Fairy of Knowledge, I  **_do_ ** know a lot about your task. You need to find seven golden hearts, right?”

Yuna nodded. “But I don’t know how or where to start. You see, I grew up thinking you can only get gold hearts with the gold string, but earlier –” Yuna remembered Seokmin’s sudden string change. “I saw a gold string slip off someone’s finger.”

“Because the gold string comes and goes. It doesn’t stay that long in someone. You have to figure out the relationship between the tied people to get the gold heart. Who was it?”

“Seokmin and Sojung.” Yuna answered.

“Do they have the red string?”

Yuna shook her head as a no.

“Then it’s pure love for the friend.” Luda spoke softly. “Love isn’t all about the love as in marriage, love goes in many ways. I may love you right now as a friend, someone might have one-sided love, but you can still get the gold heart from them. You just have to know your target.” Luda took her own cup and sipped from it. “And golden hearts don’t just come from golden strings, they may come from red and blue, as well. Nothing good will come out of purple and yellow strings, though.”

Yuna nodded in agreement. “Do you have any idea where should I start?”

Luda raised her hand. “Do you think you can get mine?” Yuna saw her strings. Someone has yellow connected to her, red and white, as well. She closed her eyes and sighed.

“This task is much harder than I thought it would be.”

“Of course the first task is hard. If it wasn’t, then anyone could be fairies now.”

“Point taken.” Yuna agreed.

“Do you want a decisive hint on where you can get a heart?” Yuna’s attention went back to Luda. “Observe classes. The gold string will show you the way.”

* * *

 

Her next class is P.E, or Physical Education. She wasn’t a fan of this class. She just had to take it because it’s in the fairy curriculum. For today’s P.E. class, they had to go out to the waterfalls. They’re going waterfall diving today. The vampires in her class had to wear sun-protective necklaces, some of them approached her and asked for fairy blood, she could swear that purple strings began appearing on their hands. She’s disgusted.

The town of Busay Falls, as we all know, is located right behind Busay Waterfalls. In order to get to the town, you have to climb up to the cave, and pass through that. If your wings can’t get wet, you have to go through the mountain, then walk to the valley. Hassle, even for Yuna.

The group of twenty students were all together. Other than hellhounds, draconians, fire and earth elementals (Unnaturals who take the forms of Air, Water Earth or Fire), every student have to take this course in Physical Education class. They were at the topmost of the waterfall, and they have to jump down and swim.

“Enough of this ruckus!” The professor, the small, blonde, spec-bound Miss Kim Taeyeon, also an elf, stood in front of them. Yuna noticed that her red string is binded by a ring, it means that she’s married to her soulmate. “Alright. The rules are simple. I threw twenty coins down there. Go find them with your diving skills, you may use your in-born abilities. I will record your diving time. Your grades will depend on how short your diving time was. No magic.” She shot a glare at Yuna and another fairy on the other side. “Fairy magic is also not allowed in this course, do I have myself clear, Love Fairy?” Yuna nodded and Miss Kim leered at the other fairy in the class, “Justice?”

Yuna looked over at the other side, realizing that the Fairy of Justice also changed.  **_It was Miss Kim Ahyoung last week. Maybe she and Miss Kim Yongsun were both promoted._ ** Yuna nodded at her own conclusion.

_ “Observe classes. The gold string will show you the way.” _

Yuna looked around, checking out their hands one by one. She first began with their class’ representative, Im Nayoung, an Oak-moon Alpha. Alpha, because she’s a leader of a pack or group and also because she’s an Oak-Moon werewolf. She’s seen her name in Luda’s list of couples and OTPs, but it doesn’t seem like she’s dating anyone. The data also noted that she recently broke up with Hwang Minhyun, a kitsune (fox shapeshifters). Yuna looked around for someone who has fox-like eyes, and she found him, soon enough. He’s tall, but not taller that Seokmin, but he’s really-really pale. If she didn’t know beforehand that he was a kitsune, she would think that Hwang Minhyun is a vampire. The two of them no longer have bonds to one another, which is a relief to Yuna, no need to pair exes.

“Hwang Minhyun, Lee Siyeon, Im Nayoung, Roseanne Park, Yeom Haein, prepare to jump!” As the professor yelled for five people to stand on the edge, five more assigned to push them have to stand behind a respective person. They’re going to jump next. “Next to them are Choi Yuna, Ong Seongwoo, Kim Jaehwan, Kang Chani, and Lee Jooeun.” She opened her flip folder. “Don’t worry kids who are allergic to salt, holy water or whatsoever, this is waterfall water. Unless some idiot spiked our waterfall, you all will be fine.

Yuna faced Hwang Minhyun, since she’s in charge of pushing him. With his back turned against the cliff, he smiled a surprisingly ~sinister~ smile. She raised a brow at him. “What?” Yuna asked.

“Nothing.”

She looked at his hands for a while. She raised a brow upon realizing that other than blue, yellow and white, his red string is nowhere to be found. Surprisingly however, she found what she needed on it.

A golden string. And this golden string is connected to –

 

 

Lee Jooeun. She’s someone who looks like an angel, but she’s actually a Strigoi. A corrupted vampire who’s trying to change her life, like any Strigoi who entered Unnatural High. Yuna mustered up her courage to ask him, “What’s with you and Jooeun?”

Minhyun smirked. “Are you trying to set us up?”

Yuna shook her head. “I would want to, if the hookup is actually beneficial.” She shrugged. “Apparently, it’s not, so spill it.”

He smirked once more. “I like your persuasiveness.” He looked behind him and smiled, “Fairy, how can silver affect Strigois?” Minhyun asked Yuna.

“It burns them, why’d you ask?” She raised her shoulders a bit. “And it’ll hurt most of the people up here, too, including me.”

Minhyun blinked, and his poker-faced demeanour soon turned to his sinister smile. “Push me hard, alright?”

“I don’t know why you suddenly asked that, and why should I push you hard but okay.” They heard the Professor’s whistle, and on cue, Yuna pushed Minhyun off the cliff. She was curious as to why he suddenly made those questions. Yuna then watched everyone fall on the plunge pool. Yuna saw Nayoung, the girl who has red, bleached hair and Siyeon, the other girl who has dark-blue hair turn to wolves, using their enhanced sense of smell to find the coins. Haein, the smallest, an elf, most likely, swam faster than anyone else, and she was able to find her coin faster than anyone. Roseanne used her super-speed, and Yuna noted that this is a Banshee skill, while Minhyun turned to a fox. His two tails did all the work for him, and he came out of the water in his human form already. Haein came out first, then Roseanne, Minhyun, Siyeon, and Nayoung came out last. They were too fast, even for the next people.

The professor yelled again. “Alright, the average for this group is fourteen seconds, with Haein getting 10 seconds and Nayoung getting seventeen seconds.” She flipped her clipboard to the next page. “Alright, after the next group are Ahin, Dongyoung, Park Siyeon, Yoo Yeonjung and Hong Joshua, get to your positions.”

Ahin soon stood in front of Yuna. Yuna remembered her as Miss Ahyoung’s apprentice. To Yuna, Miss Ahyoung is one of the fairies who requested less help, in contrast to the fairy of beauty and other fairies. Ahin stood there in front of her with her brown, bobbed, curly hair and bangs. She had a smile on her face and she said, “You must be Yuna. Sorry I didn’t stop by sooner, I had morning classes and a long-ass vacant, but I heard you were in the infirmary.”

“No, I’m equally as sorry as you.”

Ahin nodded then she threw a glance at Jooeun, who was smiling beautifully with Joshua, an Air Elemental who was playing basketball earlier. “You do know that as the Fairy of Justice, I can see what you’re thinking, right?”

Yuna nodded. “I know of your semestral task, too.”  **_Find seven wills._ ** Yuna thought. If the seven golden hearts are hard to find, the seven wills are equally, or if not, even harder to find. The seven wills are found on people who had conscience to report or speak up, even though it will tear their hearts apart. “How is it?”

“I talked to Luda. I didn’t know lots of stuffs. I feel like I joined a war without guns.”

“I know, right.” She sympathised. They had the same feelings about it. Of course, they’re newbie fairies.

“And she told me that  _ you can’t get anything without direct involvement to the reaping.”  _ Of course, Yuna got confused at her statement, but before she could ask, the Professor already whistled her signal, making Ahin blush madly, “Oh!” And with that, she hastily threw Yuna off the cliff –

Using her fairy strength, making our fairy move farther from the plunge pool.

 

**_“WHAT THE FREAKING HELL AHIN!”_ **

Yuna didn’t have the luxury to think about how she would fall on the plunge pool, so she had to act quickly. With her fairy speed, she retracted her wings since she can’t afford leaving them to dry for another extra twelve hours, Yuna dashed down to the plunge pool, and dived deep to find a coin. It didn’t take her long to find one and eventually come back out with her legs. She came out second, right after Kang Chani, a younger strigoi. Yuna couldn’t help but notice his burning arm. She grabbed his arm and examined it. “Your arm, it’s burning!”

“Yours is, too, noona!” Chani brought her arm to attention and she looked at hers. She sprinkled fairy powder on hers and she did the same with Chani’s. She noticed Minhyun standing next to the plunge pool, and Siyeon and Nayoung tending to their wounds in a hut nearby. Yuna immediately went to them and sprinkled fairy powder to their arms. Haein and Roseanne went back to the water upon the professor’s instructions.

“What happened?” Yuna asked the two werewolves.

“We think there’s melted silver that mixed with water in the plunge pool.”

She looked back at Minhyun, and suddenly, his statement,  _ “Fairy, how can silver affect Strigois?”  _ suddenly made sense. He knew about the silver mixing. Angered, she stomped off to him, but then, he suddenly jumped into the plunge pool. There, Yuna realized everything that the golden bond represents with Jooeun and Minhyun. The string that connected them, the gold string, now had stripes of red. She was glued on the ground as Minhyun went on and rescued Jooeun. Ong Seongwoo, who came out third, pulled Jaehwan, another strigoi, out of the plunge pool.

Yuna closed her eyes, and sighed heavily. She can reap the golden heart right now by involving herself in Jooeun’s rescue, but if she does, Jaehwan and Ong Seongwoo will both burn to death.

**_The heart can wait!_ ** Yuna finally decided as she ran to Seongwoo and Jaehwan. With all her power, she forcefully dried her wings and flew up to the air, directly on top of Seongwoo and Jaehwan. She flapped her wings together, causing the fairy dust to fall on their burnt parts. The burnt parts of their body soon reformed back to their original skin, making the spectators who were holding their breath finally heave a sigh of relief. She set her foot to the ground and retracted her wings back. She turned back to Minhyun and Jooeun.

She found the female strigoi being carried by the male kitsune. Her wounds were all healed by Minhyun. “She passed out, can you wake her up?” He asked Yuna.

Yuna looked at Jooeun and shook her head lightly. “I used up all my powers to save Jaehwan, I’m sorry.” She looked back at Minhyun’s hands and noticed that the gold in the string is starting to fade, and slowly, the gold formed together to create a gold heart crystalline structure. At awe, Yuna’s eyes and mouth went wide, and the golden heart became visible to everyone. Yuna was about to grasp the heart, but it fell to another person’s hand.

Ahin’s.

She had her fairy eyes on, and she sealed the heart in the bag. “I’m sorry, Yuna-unnie, but this heart falls in my jurisdiction. You failed to involve yourself in the reaping of the heart, thus, the golden heart produced will be kept in my care. I will have to ask the other fairies whether to give this to you or not.”

Yuna’s heart broke, and Jaehwan, who was ultimately grateful, yelled, “Hey! She deserved that heart!” He came closer to Ahin and frowned. “Give it to her.”

She scoffed, “We’re fairies, we have to abide by the Fairy Law.” She looked back at Yuna, and in the blink of an eye, a sword appeared on her right hand. She raised it up and said, “Do you, Choi Yuna, Fairy of Love, accept the judgement?”

“Hey!” This time, even Chani and Seongwoo spoke up on Yuna’s defence. “She saved most of us here –“

Nayoung growled and shook her head. “As much as we have our own laws, fairies have theirs, too.”

Yuna looked down, disheartened and broken, she whispered,  _ “I accept and abide by the Fairy Law.” _

* * *

 

Seokmin found himself waiting outside Busay Falls when he heard that the plunge pool of the waterfalls was corrupted by silver. He also heard that Yuna, a fairy who caught his attention, was in that class. He sat by the entrance of the town, and he waited for the class to come. Soon, he’s heard chatters, so he knows that the class made it out alive. Although it’s notable that only half of the class are drenched and they were all talking to one another. He saw Joshua, one of the older members in his clique, and he waved at him, making Joshua wave back and smile brightly at the sight of the younger member of their clique. Seokmin, however, wasn’t looking for him. He was looking for the fairy.

Maybe it was because he was fascinated at her wet wings, this is the first time he’s met someone as careless with her wings as Yuna. He’s been with Chaeyeon, the Fairy of Truth, ever since they were children. And as far as he knows, she doesn’t like getting her wings wet.

 

But she’s something else.

Dragons don’t date fairies, but he’s attracted to her. Maybe that’s why he wasn’t too fond of seeing the fairy with his friend, Soonyoung. She was like a magnet to him.

When he saw her climbing up, he brightened and went to her with a smile. “Yuna!” He greeted her.

She looked up to him, and that’s when he saw something in her eyes. She smiled painfully. “Hey.” She held on to his arm, although he had to pull back his scales because he got startled, he supported her by pulling her shoulders up. “I’m sorry, but can’t you take me to my office?”

Seokmin blinked for a few seconds, but when it finally processed to him, he picked her up on a bridal-style and he ran quickly to the school, then to her office. He put her down on the chair and asked her, “You need anything?”

“When I said take me to my office, I didn’t mean pick me up and run in a not-so-human-speed.” Seokmin smiled a gummy smile and sat on the consultation. “And serve yourself some tea if you want some. I’m too tiredt to even walk.” She added.

“Why, do you have spicy tea?”

“That’s just disgusting, Seokmin.” She closed her eyes and Seokmin observed her and her environment. Her office is as big as any of the fairies’, as he’s been to every fairy’s office except the Fairy of Knowledge’s. They all have a distinct area, though. In Yuna’s office is a potion-making area. Yuna’s pretty, Seokmin would say. Her bangs are cut into two parts. One that would cover her forehead and the other would reach her neck. She tied her hair in a ponytail during the morning but now, since her hair is drenched, she has it down. “Do you have anything to do later?”

He raised a brow. “Nothing much, why?”

“Come with me to town.”

* * *

  
  



	4. The only time you’ll see Fairies Together

Yuna didn’t know why she asked Seokmin, her Draconian schoolmate, out for a town walk. She barely even knows him! She walked faster, trying to keep up with the Draconian’s pace. Suddenly, he stopped. “Hey, where are we going?” He asked her. The two of them reached the plaza. The plaza is no different to human plazas. It’s a hexagonal field with a gazebo in the middle. There are stores, food stalls and tons of seats. There were children running around, playing.Some wolves were sitting together, eating the finest meat, some elderly vampires were sipping blood like it’s afternoon tea, fairies and strzygas were flying around, and more of them were out there. Some students were also out there, eating together, coming in groups. “Hey.” Seokmin called her out once more.

“Oh, right.” Yuna breathed in and out. “I came here to observe”

Seokmin nodded and Yuna sat on one of the benches. He stood up and went to the drinks stall. The storekeeper is a vampire. Seokmin smelled his scent, and it smells like one of the elder members of his clique, Seungcheol. “So, what do fairies drink, mister?” He asked him.

“Honeycomb Juice.” He flatly replied. “And tea, like, tons of them.”

“Please get me one of those, and Fiery-Spicy-Pepper Juice.”

“That’s 70-kiao.” Seokmin gave the vampire a 100-kiao bill and he soon passed him the change. The shopkeeper began creating the juice and Seokmin looked at the scales on his hands. The scales are the Draconians’ symbol of identity.  It’s like the trademark of their race, other than the fact that they can turn to dragons by will. “You dating a fairy, boy?” The shopkeeper suddenly asked, startling Seokmin.

He smiled it off and shook his head. “No, Mister. We just went out after class to get a breather, or something.”

The shopkeeper nodded and he served him the drink. “Fairy blood is beneficial to all races except dragons, so be careful when you know,” He didn’t finish his statement. After all, he knows that they’re likely minors. “When you go to that stage of dating.”

Seokmin chuckled, but actually flushed in embarrassment. He just successfully made it less obvious because of his naturally reddish skin. “Y-yes.” He hesitantly answered then he took their drinks, then he went back to Yuna.

Yuna on the other hand, while she was waiting for Seokmin, had the time to look around the students with their uniforms on. She closed her eyes, opened it, closed it, and then opened it once more.

 

**_No gold strings._ **

She heaved a sigh, and just threw a glance at the cute Elf-Dragon couple that she saw earlier in the duration of the love potion mess. Kang Dongho and Jung Wheein. They ranked second on Luda’s list of top couples. She’s only gone through the first until the third, with the first being Seungcheol-Jiyeon and the third being Jihyo and Wonwoo, a Strzyga-Hybrid couple. Anyway, back to Dongho and Wheein. Dongho, the Draconian, is a lot taller than Wheein. Considering that the girl is in the taller side of the elves, the height gap is not that bad. Wheein is 5”4 and Dongho is 5”10. Yuna watched the two of them play around with bubbles, Dongho frequently carrying his girlfriend by the waist, and Wheein asking him to put her down.

**_They really look well together._ **

“You look invested.” Seokmin suddenly appeared next to her, with his wide smile and drinks on his hand. “I bought you Honeycomb Juice.”

“Oh, thanks.” Yuna took it from his hand and she began drinking it. She resumed observing the couple who are now walking away from the field and to the same shop where Seokmin got the drinks. “They’re cute.”

Seokmin nodded. “They are.”

And there was silence.

Yuna looked back at Seokmin’s hand, and the yellow string from earlier can no longer be found on his hands. She raised a brow and asked, “How can you shift emotions quickly?”

His eyes narrowed at curiosity. “What?”

Yuna’s beginning to hesitate. Her reason for hesitating is the same as earlier with Soonyoung. She doesn’t know whether to trust Seokmin or not. It’s not like her abilities are a secret though. “Earlier, you were mad at someone, and now, you’re no longer mad at that person.”

He smiled a little. “I was immature.”

“Was it at class?”

He shook his head, not removing his ~beautiful~ smile. “It was outside class, but don’t mind it, I’m okay.”

Yuna nodded. She’s not the Fairy of Justice nor the Fairy of Truth, so she can’t read through him. But she’s sure that at the very least, he’s telling the truth. The strings can’t lie. “Alrighty, then.”

“Hey, I have –“

Seokmin was cut off by someone who pulled his shoulder. A panting, 6-footer Unnatural. Yuna’s guessing that he’s a werewolf, they’re taller by nature, and his teeth looks like he’s one. “Here you are!” He yelled, then he placed his hands on his waist, trying to catch his breath, “Seok –“

Yuna naturally passed him the Honeycomb juice. “It’s honeycomb.” She said, he gratefully took it and drank more than half of it, then he returned it to Yuna. She threw the straw off and she directed her attention back to him. “Are you alright?”

“I am, but Seungcheol and Seokwoo are not, and Seokwoo SNAPPED.”

As far as Yuna can remember, Seungcheol and Seokwoo are the captain and vice-captain of the Basketball team, respectively. They were in good terms until last year, according to the data Luda provided, and it wasn’t stated there, either, on what happened between them. It just said there, “on cold war”. But it seems to her that the wolf and Seokmin are suddenly on edge. Seokmin stood up and he cracked his neck. He twisted his head a bit, and he began to glow.  **_HE DEADASS TRANSFORMED IN FRONT OF ME!_ **

Seokmin’s dragon form is a blue dragon. Pure dragons are two times larger than him, but regardless, he’s still huge. “Yuna.” He called her out. “You can go home on your own, right?”

**_You’ve got to be kidding me. Me? Missing out the drama?_ ** She smirked and with that said, she brought out her wings and flapped it. Her wings are white and gold. It was wide and tall. A wing is twice her size and it’s slightly above her head but no lower than her knees. “You can’t see me missing out the dramas, right?”

His dragon face was able to show a small smirk, but Yuna can see his human form smirk and chuckle. “Alright, then Mingyu better start running.” He smiled at his werewolf friend, apparently named Mingyu. “Race you to the school.”

“No fair, you two got WINGS!” Mingyu could only yell as the two winged Unnaturals flew off to the school.

* * *

 

Sojung paced quietly under the shade. She had crossed arms and a she has a worried expression. In the middle of the quadrangle are Seokwoo and Seungcheol. Both of their flaring eyes glaring at one another, yelling of hatred and disgust. The two of them are being held back by their own cliques and fellow vampires and werewolves.

“Hold him down, he can’t move anywhere without the pendant of protection, anyway.” Seokwoo began. “Sucks to be a vampire who can’t stand the sunlight, doesn’t it?”

“Shut it, immoral vampire. If your mother hadn’t been a werewolf, you would be under me, fool!” Seungcheol began flashing his fangs, and two other vampires, held him down. “Let go of me!”

“And what, maybe die here? No thank you, Seungcheol.” The other vampire, Jaebum literally pulled him. “It’s no use fighting Seokwoo, none of you two would be victorious.”

Sojung on the side massaged her temple as she prepared to find a seat. She’s anticipating this battle. She was soon joined by the short, blonde Fairy of Knowledge, Luda. She sat next to her and passed her iced tea. “That’s Lipton.”

Sojung accepted it and raised a brow. “You’re a fairy who likes human tea, aren’t you?”

“If it’s tea and it’s as good as fairy tea, then it’s good enough for me. And besides, it’s a lot cheaper than fairy tea.” Luda went on and drank from her own iced tea. “I heard that there’s gonna be a mess, so I can’t help but come out of my office.”

Sojung nodded. “Hearing the names Seokwoo and Seungcheol together is already equated to a mess, there’s nothing new with that.” She looked at the small fairy who’s sipping her ices tea from a straw. “You must enjoy fights a lot. I only see you out when someone’s gonna fight.”

Luda smiled smugly. “Well, it’s of the few times I’m going to see all of the fairies.” As if it was on cue, three more fairies descended from the air. Two guys and a girl. They were all pale, but the other two male fairies are too distinct from one another. The first male fairy has his face shaped like a mango, and he has notable visuals that can mistake him for a girl. Meanwhile, the second male fairy has this aura of a leader, despite the fact that his face is so young-looking. His single eyelids are also evident. The last fairy that arrived is the most beautiful fairy of them all, but she’s not the fairy of beauty. She has this innocent face that’s to die for, and her bangs work perfectly with her face – probably because she’s  **_THAT_ ** pretty.

“Luda, hey.” Choi Minki, the Fairy of Charity, the first male fairy who arrived greeted the smaller girl. “Your hair is not-so-fine today, as I see it.”

“Stop it, Minki. You never compliment our little Luda’s hair, either way.” Kim Youngbin, the second male fairy who arrived, also the Fairy of Leadership, groaned at Minki’s remark. He retracted his wings first, and the other two followed.

“It’s nice to see you outside, Luda.” Jung Chaeyeon, the pretty fairy smiled at her. She’s the Fairy of Truth. “And the others would probably show up today, too.”  She didn’t forget to greet the banshee who’s sitting with Luda. “Greetings to you, Sojung.”

Sojung replied flatly, “You too, Chaeyeon.”

“Well, look who’s here!” A voice resounded from behind them, and a portal opened on that same spot, too. Four fairies came out of the portal with wide smiles. The first one to get out is Lee Daehwi, the Fairy of Excellence. Ultimately, he’s the youngest of the fairies, even with the addition of Yuna and Ahin. He has bright eyes and brown hair. “Luda-noona~!” He didn’t hesitate to throw the small girl a wide hug. “It’s nice to see you catching some air!” The way he spoke it sounded too sarcastic to Sojung, to be honest. “Ah, Sojung-noona is here, too. Tell me, is someone dying?”

Sojung frowned, but she tried not to let it show. “My power doesn’t work that way.”

He shrugged and he was soon followed a female fairy who just finished retracting her wings. She has specs on, and her hair is somehow blonde to light brown. Her eyes are shaped like a kitsune’s and her lips are on a default colour of pink. She’s Jung Eunwoo, the Fairy of Faith. “Dear, I can’t believe we’re almost late for the party.”

“I can’t believe I’m a Banshee present in a Fairy Party.” Sojung narrowed her eyes. “I can’t believe all of you are coming out to witness the fight.”

“It’s drama. If it’s drama, we can’t miss it out.” The third fairy explained. He’s of the tallest among the fairies and his face is the most popular, despite not being the Fairy of Beauty. He’s Park Jinyoung, the Fairy of Service. “I had to ditch Cafeteria Cleaning for this.”

“I ditched it with him.” Lee Dongmin, the actual Fairy of Beauty known for his actual beauty to the point that no matter who stands next to him, they will all get hated for their visuals. He’s  **_THAT_ ** handsome. “A fight is much more fun to watch than a fairy working his ass off.”

“Language!” Eunwoo scolded him. “Please, fix it up, Dongmin.”

“Why do I need to fix up my language, are we all facing god here?”

“Shut it!”

“That, my friends, is a visual representation of stopping an argument with an illogical statement.” Daehwi concluded, making the two shut up, eventually.

Sojung heaved a sigh and stood up. “I should go now. It’s about time.” The fairies all smiled at her remark, bringing out snacks, making her burst into laughter. “Alright, what’s with the snacks?”

“We thought it would be a snack-worthy fight, so here,” Chaeyeon gave Sojung some corn chips. “That’s for you. Enjoy the fight today!”

Sojung shook her head in amusement and walked away with a wave goodbye. When she was no longer in sight, the fairies all huddled up. “Where are Ahin and Yuna?” Youngbin asked.

“I haven’t seen Ahin since flight class and I haven’t seen Yuna since potions class.” Minki explained. “Where are those two when we need them?”

“But you see” Eunwoo began. “Ahin is never late. Her sense of ~justice and time~ made her buy a fake Rolex from China.”

“Is she perhaps, judging the match?” Jinyoung asked. “Man, that’s some badass service to the school.”

“Nah, I’ll bet you kiaos that she just forgot to reload her China Rolex with human batteries.” Daehwi retorted. “But as for the new Fairy of Love, well, we never met, so—“

“You bossed her around prior to her election.” Eunwoo began once more. “She swore she’ll never tell you who your soulmate is.” And another, “You two got into a fight to the point that both of you almost lost your fairy statuses, remember her now?

Daehwi nodded, but it was a sarcastic nod. His eyes, though, suddenly went wild when a dragon descended from the sky. With this dragon is one of the fairies. “Yuna’s here.”

Yuna retracted her wings then smiled at the sight of the other fairies. “Hey, fairies!” She smiled brightly, but Daehwi can’t get his eyes off the dragon. Yuna saw it, then she just smiled. “That’s not a real dragon, Daehwi. Pull your jaw.”

When Daehwi realized it, he indeed closed his mouth and scoffed as the dragon transformed to Seokmin’s human form. “Yuna, I’m going to go on ahead.”

Yuna nodded. “Sure!” She then directed her attention back to the fairies and she made a head count. She raised a brow at the missing person. “No Ahin?”

“I’m sorry I’m late.” Ahin finally appeared, making the ten fairies finally complete. The schools for Unnaturals have one law regarding fairies entering their school. A school is only allowed to have ten fairies with correspondence to the ten virtues their region upholds. Busay Falls upholds the following virtues: Justice, Leadership, Generosity, Knowledge, Truth, Faith, Service, Excellence, Beauty and Truth. Each virtue has a respective fairy protecting these virtues.

“Shall we go to the match now?” Eunwoo asked. The rest of the fairies nodded and they fluttered their wings, and flew to the proximity of the fight.

Now that we’re in the topic of the fight, the two of them are still being held down by their friends, trying to excuse that this isn’t the way to do this. Angels who are spectators watched from trees, as any involvement from angels can cause the death of both of them. Nephilims who are half-angels half-humans were all watching on the ground, though.

The fairies finally came between them, with Ahin in the centre. In a flash of light, the same sword that was used to judge Yuna earlier appeared right before their eyes. “Will the two of you really fight?” Ahin asked with the same scary tone she used with Yuna earlier.

“Move it, Fairy! I will end this immoral vampire right here, right now!”

Yuna raised a brow at Seungcheol’s statement. “Immoral vampire?” She asked Luda, who was standing next to her.

“Seokwoo is a vampire-werewolf hybrid.” Luda answered flatly, without any explanation. This is new to Yuna, as when they talked earlier, everything had an explanation. Yuna looked at her hands, and her suspicion is correct. Luda’s red string is connected to Seokwoo. Seokwoo, of course, had a blue string connected to someone else, and that is –

 

**_JUNG CHAEYEON?! WHAT IS THE NAME OF THIS UNNATURAL DRAMA?!_ **

She swore she saw Luda shoot a sharp glare at Chaeyeon. “Aren’t you even a bit worried?” She asked the girlfriend.

Chaeyeon shook her head and just smiled. “I’m sure he can win this match.”

The two of them didn’t stop trash-talking one another, and frankly, Ahin got bored of the simple drama, she wanted something fun. She drew back her sword and instead, now, she drew two flags, making the two stop and stare at the flags. “I will officiate an official match between Kim Seokwoo and Choi Seungcheol. The match will go accordingly to the school rules, and no one is allowed to cheat. You may change forms, but you are not allowed to get associated and unassociated help from anyone.” She then flashed a bottle in her hands. It looks quite expensive, honestly. “Winner of this match will get this limited-edition fairy blood wine.”

Suddenly, all the fairy’s eyes were on Ahin. “Hey, stupid!” Daehwi yelled. “That’s freaking 100 thousand kiao are you freaking kidding me?!”

“Language, Daehwi!”

Luda massaged her temples, saying, “Oh, here we go again.”

“Silence!” Ahin yelled, then she went back to talking with the two. “Are we clear?”

Seungcheol smirked. “I get to beat up the immoral vampire  **_and_ ** get Fairy blood? Now that’s talk.” He cracked his neck and revealed his fangs. His eyes turned red and his transformation was completed with a smirk. “Let’s finish this quickly. Vampires are gonna have a feast tonight.”

“Stupid number one just talked.” Daehwi commented.

“Whatever, the loser here is you.” Seokwoo also changed to a big wolf with red eyes, making the fact that he’s a hybrid show.

“Stupid number two is also talking,” Daehwi added and he rolled his eyes. “We should change Busay Falls to Stupid Falls.”

 

Yuna chuckled at Daehwi’s commentary but her laugh slowly disappeared when she saw something on Seungcheol and Seokwoo’s hatred string. The yellow string began showing stripes of black.

 

 

**_Black means death._ **

* * *

 

Meanwhile, Sojung, who decided to skip the match since the outcome is predictable to her, walked alone to her home. As she was approaching her boarding house, she suddenly felt a pang on her chest, like someone is desperately beating it with a bat.

 

She soon felt the tears roll down her eyes. Her heart is beating like crazy, and she can’t explain the emotions.

 

 

**_But this is the feeling she feels when she can see someone dying._ **

 

“No.” Her legs failed her, and she fell on the ground, weeping,  _ “Stop it, don’t die.” _

  
  



	5. Seungcheol and Seokwoo

Yuna gasped as she saw black stripes beginning to show on the yellow string between Seungcheol and Seokwoo. She doesn’t know why there’s one, it was never documented. However, there were rumors back then. It ranged from death to a simple fainting, but whatever it is, it doesn’t bring good news. “Shouldn’t we stop them?” Yuna asked Luda, who shook her head in response.

“School rules. Until one of them admits defeat or is knocked out, nothing can stop them.”

Yuna nodded, although hesitant and watched as the two male Unnaturals get ready to attack each other. **_Well, shit._** Yuna cursed at the back of her mind. It hasn’t even began but the grounds were already filled with curious and hyped up students, some of them are already even bettingkiaos on this match, much to Jinyoung’s enjoyment. Before the match began, Mingyu, the werewolf who seems to be friends with Seokmin, went to Yuna. He changed back to his human form and he stood next to her.

Mingyu, all in all, is a good looking young man in his human form, and he’s also charming in his wolf form. He has fangirls all over the batches, but he doesn’t date, according to his strings. Also, he doesn’t have that much hatred or sexual desires in his strings, so he’s pretty much innocent in her eyes. Another plus factor is the fact that his red string has shades of blue, indicating one-sided love for his soulmate. **_So he likes his soulmate but the poor guy is in love on his own? How sad._** Mingyu smiled brightly, his canine teeth showing. His smile reminds Yuna of Seokmin and Soonyoung, too innocent for the Unnatural world and the human world.

“So, are you a noona or are you not?” He asked, trying to not to sound rude.

“What are you, a batch 98?” She asked, referring to his birth year.

He shook his head and answered, “No, I’m a batch 97.”

“Then who are you calling Noona? Do I look THAT old? We’re of same age.”

“Ah, like me and Seokmin!” Mingyu shook his head and smiled as he raised his hand in defense. “No, no, I heard the new fairy of love’s age is close to Miss Yongsun’s. I didn’t know it was six-years closer.” He smiled at her and then he suddenly turned serious. “This is so hellish, right?”

**_Oh, total reversal. He looks like a dummy but he’s not stupid._** Yuna nodded at his comment. “I can’t believe we have to wait for one person to lose his sanity before this game ends.” She looked up to him, who’s a lot taller than she is. “Does this happen often?”

He nodded. “Not Seungcheol-hyung and Seokwoo-hyung though. Both of them snapped today.”

Yuna raised a brow. This is her chance to get the answers she deserves. “Hey, what’s with them? I heard they were friends before.”

This time, Mingyu was the one who raised a brow. “Hold up, you didn’t know?” She shook her head in response. “They were friends until Seungcheol accidentally slept with Jiyeon.”

She raised a brow once more. “He didn’t die?” She crossed her arms as she can’t connect the dots. “I don’t get it, though. Aren’t vampires supposed to die after an angel kisses them? Well, unless—“ Then it hit her. **_No way._**

“Yup, if you’re thinking about fairy blood wine, aka the only thing that can cancel out vampires’ weaknesses, then you got it right. Seungcheol-hyung’s family owns a vampire blood bank, and they got some stocks in India, well, you know of the fairy massacre there for fairy blood, so, he pretty much got himself a one year supply of fairy blood.” Mingyu explained, and Yuna was disgusted.

“As if the massacre wasn’t bad enough, he had to be that disgusting.”

Mingyu smirked. “But Seungcheol-hyung is nice, he doesn’t attack fairies for fairy blood.”

Yuna smiled. “I guess.”

The match is about to start and Seokmin also changed back to his human form and he joined Yuna and Mingyu. He scratched his head innocently and Mingyu just shook his head. “I tried to stop them, but the new Fairy of Justice is making things worse for everyone.”

“I’m also a fairy, but that sounded so precise so I have to agree.” Yuna looked at the wine on the table. The other fairies also settled themselves with their friends, except Luda who’s still standing next to her. “Right, Luda?”

Luda nodded as she sipped her milk. “It’s either Ahin is confident or entirely stupid.” She sighed. “I think it’s the latter, though.” She ran her free hand through her face and a pair of glasses appeared on her face. Bothe Mingyu and Seokmin were at awe but Yuna shrugged.

“It’s called fairy glasses.” Yuna did the same gesture and glasses soon also appeared in her eyes. “Each pair is different, based on what our virtue is. On my case, I can see exactly what you feel about one another, or just the heart level.”

“What’s a heart level?” Mingyu asked.

“A heart level is the level of how much you like one person.”

“Is that so?” Mingyu asked, suddenly interlacing his arm with Seokmin’s. “What about us? What’s our heart level?”

All for the sake of testing, Yuna used her glasses to check it out. Now, she has to look from their hands, which has a silver string, a string she can only see with the fairy glasses and is used to indicate friendship, then she looks at their chests, then back to the middle of the string. She found four silver hearts, and this level is called the “evolving friendship” level. They just got out of their comfort zones, and they just finished putting down the wall between them. “Somehow close but not close-close.”

The two boys let out an “oh” of approval, but they both stopped when they heard Luda clear her throat. Not a good sign for the boys. “What does yours do, Luda?” Mingyu asked.

“I can see stats.” Luda spoke as she glanced at the two boys being prepared by their friends for the match. “Like, how’s their body doing, how well they are in school and stuffs.” Before Mingyu was able to say anything, Luda shot him a deadly glare. “Don’t make me look up yours, some of your _sasaeng_ fans infiltrated my database and got yours, look it up at Unnaturalnetizens.com.busayfalls.”

Mingyu frowned. “You’re a good rapper.”

“I appreciate the compliment but I sing better than I rap, so next idea, please.”

“Oooh, the sass.” Both Seokmin and Yuna chorused, and they noticed the jinx so they gave each other a high-five.

“Whoa, someone’s fighting?” A somehow deep, melodic voice came in. His brooding voice seems to be familiar with the two boys. Yuna turned around to meet his eyes, not forgetting to keep her fairy glasses. It’s Dongho. It’s actually the first time for her to actually meet him. She always observed him from afar, but now that she saw him, she realized as to why he’s called the scariest among the Draconians. His skin hand shows his scales, but Yuna doesn’t know why it’s kept alive like that. He had black hair, and his piercings are more than one. He also has a tiger tattoo on his arm, and a girlfriend on the other. He’s with the smaller girl, his girlfriend, Wheein. She remembers her as the girl in potion class who’s too loud. Now that Yuna had a closer look to Wheein, she noticed the girl’s hair color, which is almost light-brown, but still in the range of brown. Her dimple is deep, and it compliments her face a lot. “This is gonna be fun.” Dongho noted.

Before anything got worse, Seokmin introduced Yuna. “Dongho hyung, she’s Yuna, the fairy of love.”

Dongho bowed politely and smiled. “I know, Wheein told me about her.”

“I saw your bravery at the waterfalls earlier, and we have potions class together.” Wheein spoke. Yuna took note of her beautiful tone. “Luda’s also here!” Wheein threw Luda a hug, causing the fairy to step forward a bit, and Dongho pulled her before any falling would happen.

“Be careful.” Dongho scolded her. He bowed another bow to Luda. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

Luda just sighed and tapped Wheein’s arm, which is still wrapped around her neck. “Wheein-unnie, you can let go now. The battle’s starting.”

“Oh? Is it?” It also got the attention of three other 97-ers. “Are we not going to sit? This bench is not going to call us to sit, you know.”

Yuna mentally face-palmed. Her legs almost gave up and she didn’t realize that they were standing on the bench. She also began to hit Seokmin’s arm, causing a light “ouch” from the dragon. The four of them, Luda, Seokmin, Mingyu and Yuna all got off the bench, letting the ladies sit on the bench while the men sat on the grass. Their view was not half-bad, it’s like three meters from the battle pentagon, some sort of battlefield the students created for battles, and they’re on the right side. They can see Seokwoo’s face, but Seungcheol’s back from their spot. Wheein leaned on Dongho’s thigh and she asked as she noticed a few more Unnaturals come out of the campus building. “Oh? Even the seniors are coming out of the study dome.” She noted, referring to the library-like dome next to the main building of the campus.The seniors are the students in 10th year, preparing for their graduation exams at the end of the year. They don’t usually come out, either. “Byullie-unnie is also out today.” She said, noting the grey-haired senior who came out of the study dome, too.

“Of course, it’s like the Mayweather-Pacquiao of Unnaturals.” Mingyu began.

“False analogy.” Luda shot him down almost immediately with a fallacy attack. “Did Pacquiao hate Mayweather prior to their match? They didn’t. All the disgusting backlashes happened after their match.” She flashed out her fairy glasses and she sighed. “I’ll put it simply for this lamebrained werewolf. It’s like your eternal hatred towards Skinwalkers, but think of it as a skinwalker holding your significant other hostage.”

“I get it, but what did you just call me?”

“Lamebrain.” Before Mingyu was able to counter-attack, she began once more. “Seokwoo and Seungcheol are equally matched, this is a good battle to watch.”

Dongho nodded in agreement. “I’ve battled Seungcheol in a match before, and Seokwoo isn’t an easy feat, either.”

“You pulverized both of them, Dongho-ssi,” Luda reminded him and Dongho scratched his neck in embarrassment.

“Don’t remind me.”

 

**_*prrt!*_** A loud whistle was heard. Yuna gasped as she saw the kitsune at the waterfall earlier in P.E. class, Hwang Minhyun. “What is **_he_** doing there?”

“Oh, Minhyun is a part of the Battle Committee.” Dongho explained. “They’re the ones who officiates battles in the school. They’re usually made up of thirteen ruling people who would judge the battle in case it might go to a do or die battle.”

Minhyun, the pale kitsune, tapped the microphone a few times. Yuna noted the people around the pentagon who were holding clip boards, like Ahin who sat with her friends, Yuna remembers Park Siyeon, one of the werewolves in P.E. class, as one of Ahin’s friends. The said wolf is also holding a clipboard. Yuna concluded that Siyeon must be in the Battle Committee as well. Minhyun let out a loud cough and began speaking. “Hello, the match of Choi Seungcheol and Kim Seokwoo is about to begin. Please observe proper distances to avoid casualties.” The students who were too close to the pentagon moved a few spaces backwards. Most of them are their respective allies. “Thank you.”

Yuna noted their allies. Seungcheol’s allies were all vampires; Seungcheol’s clique is not present in the crowd. Seokmin and Mingyu are with her and Soonyoung is nowhere to be found. All of them had red eyes and pale skins. Some of them even have their emblems, probably to protect their skins from the sun. It’s almost five in the afternoon, but the sun is still up. Meanwhile, Seokwoo’s allies are very diverse. You may call Yuna uneducated, but it is her first time to see Werewolves and Skinwalkers, (Unnaturals who are like werewolves, only that they change forms to dogs instead of wolves) and even Humans supporting one person altogether. She was amazed by this scene, honestly. She hasn’t seen anyone this influential. “Seokwoo’s friends,” She began. “Are very diverse.”

“Actually, Yuna,” Wheein followed, “If Dongho wasn’t friends with Seungcheol, I would’ve supported Seokwoo.” She shrugged. “Oh, for real, it’s starting!” She pointed at the pentagon, and their attention was back to it. About time it started!

“School rules. Unless one of you forfeits or gives up, or is knocked out, or deemed unworthy of the council, the battle must continue. No using of weapons. Win with magic. Death is punishable by law.” Minhyun began instructing Seungcheol and Seokwoo. “Once you get out of the pentagon’s perimeter, you will get one warning. Three warnings and you lose.”

“So flying is not allowed?” Seokwoo asked with a smirk. He then glanced at Seungcheol. “Unlucky you.” As they began talking, Yuna noticed the black stripes on their yellow sting once more.

**_What does that string mean?_ **

She closed her eyes shut and opened it once more, and them it’s gone again. The whistle was heard once more and the battle ~finally~ began. Seungcheol’s hands formed two guns in his hands. His hand noticeably turned from pale to red. **_Pyrokinesis._** Yuna noted. Seokwoo on the other hand, has his eyes changed to a colour of yellow. “Seokwoo, how about we finish this easily?” Seungcheol smirked and with his own magic, he controlled fire from his insides to come out through his fingers. However, as if the attack was predicted by Seokwoo, the man in his wolf form just crooked his neck, and ultimately, he was able to dodge the vampire’s attack. “So you’re using your vampire heritage against me, a royal vampire, huh? You –“

Seokwoo didn’t allow anything to slide. He slashed Seungcheol’s face right away with is claws, making the vampire step back a few steps. Seokwoo immediately went back to his human form. “You were saying?”

Seungcheol was not going to stay idle for long, and he immediately charged his hands with fire once more, and this time, he landed a punch on Seokwoo’s stomach, making him yelp and quickly change back to his wolf form. Seungcheol walked closer to him and smirked. “This is why you lost Jiyeon, Seokwoo. You are too naive, you think you can defeat a pure-blooded vampire as me? You are a fool!”

Five,

Ten seconds have passed.

It took ten seconds for Seokwoo to turn back to his human form. He stood tall and looked down on him. “ _Have you ever heard why Sojung didn’t stand you at all?”_  In Yuna’s eyes, the black between their strings just grew tighter, much more powerful than it was before the match began. **_Seokwoo mentioned Sojung. There’s more to this U(nnatural)drama than how I thought it was?_** She also noticed that Seungcheol’s aura turned red, and the students who were with her began whispering “oh nos” and “is Seokwoo crazy?”. Another thing that she noticed is Luda wearing her glasses. She raised a brow and asked, “That again?”

“Looks like Sojung-unnie is still Seungcheol-ssi’s trigger point.” Luda crossed her arms and her glasses faded out once more.

“Trigger point?” Yuna asked.

“Werewolves, Vampires and Demons have something in common. It’s called a trigger point. A trigger point is something that awakens a much more powerful force inside these Unnaturals. We don’t feel it, but they do.”

Yuna looked over at Seungcheol with a worried look. She noticed that the black string’s power just got a lot worse. And his look, too. Seokwoo looked happy pissing him off. “Didn’t she dump you because your royal heritage is as worthless as it looks?”  He suddenly brightened. “ _Oh, wait, didn’t she find out about her mother’s death on the hands of your father?”_

**That made Seungcheol snap, for real.** His fangs showed and he began breathing heavily. He bit off his own arm and began drinking blood from it, angrily, as they may add. That just made the black string go darker and darker. Yuna’s fists curled up and she can’t get her eyes off the string as fear began creeping through her skin.

“Stop them.”

 

* * *

 

Soonyoung is visibly worried for his dorm-mate, Sojung. Since everyone’s out to watch the match of the century maybe except him and Sojung, but ever since she got home, she’s been doing nothing but crying. He tried knocking on her door more than once, but she hasn’t been responding. “Sojung-noona, aren’t you gonna come out?” He asked, yelling from the other side of the door.

“Leave me alone!” She yelled back, making him sigh and leave her food on the door.

“Noona, I left your food on your door.” He turned his back and when he did that, something hurting panged on his heart, like it attacked it face-up, not letting it take a break, he began to look for support from the wall.

 

Then it stopped.

As he was finally able to breathe, he looked out of the window. Their dorm is far from the school, but he can still see the pentagon from there. He also saw Seungcheol’s aura.

 

**_His killing aura._ **

* * *

****

Seungcheol began running towards Seokwoo, with his flaring eyes and mad aura. You can talk to him about everything except Sojung. Touch anyone but Sojung. That’s how much he loved her. That’s how much he wants to protect her. Yuna considered this as a gold heart candidate, but as of now, he’s closest to the coffin candidate. And it was not going to stop soon as Seungcheol kept throwing heated punches at Seokwoo, with one eventually landing on his jaw, making him fly a little upward, but Seokwoo got a hold of gravity, and he fell on his feet. He wiped the blood that came out of her mouth and said, “What, is that all you got? I can’t believe you’re the son of Sojung’s mother’s killer!”

“Shut up, you a**hole! You know nothing!” Seungcheol didn’t hesitate to concentrate now the heat to his feet, making every kick hotter than how it’s should be.

As Seokwoo was dodging the attacks of Seungcheol, he kept pissing him off. It was his revenge. It took him a whole year to plan and learn about this, all of this. “So after breaking the poor Banshee’s heart by making her wail for her mother’s name when she was dying, you go and date her? For what? To help her cope?” Seungcheol’s eyes widened and he threw another kick, which Seokwoo dodged. “Well news flash, you didn’t help her cope! You broke her heart even more. No wonder she chose that angel friend of yours to stay by her side!”

“You jerk!” Finally, Seunghceol, with his eyes and his ability to control everything even without the use of his hands, raised Seokwoo up to the air and he began choking him. “You know nothing about me, nothing about Sojung and nothing about us! How dare you think that she used me to cope over her mother’s death? And how dare you talk trash about Jeonghan that way, you immoral vampire!”

Seokwoo growled. “I-I’m no i-i-immoral v-vampire.” He began to create energy on his hands, but Seungcheol’s power is too overwhelming that he can’t move.

“You, Seokwoo the **_hybrid,”_** He said, addressing him properly. “Are the same age as Wonwoo, my hybrid friend who I respect.” He harshly made him fall to the ground and crawl. “His difference to you is simple. He doesn’t attack people for the past.” He glanced at one of the hybrids sitting next to the tree. He’s lazily reading a book, not giving a damn to the match. “But rather, Wonwoo is someone who looks out to the future.”

 

“I think you should look after your own future...” Seokwoo began. As Seungcheol was faced against him, Seokwoo had the chance to take him down, so he pulled out a garlic-stained knife, a fatal enemy for vampires, but something made him stop.

Because Yuna was not going to let it happen. Under her command, a hand-sized fairy came out from her backpack and flew to the pentagon.

 

**_You wouldn’t want to do that._** He heard someone say. **_I don’t think you would want your other half to suffer, right?_** Seokwoo blinked. Twice, and that’s when he locked eyes with Luda. Her large eyes and her blonde hair got hit attention. _My other half?_ He told himself as he pulled the dagger back in and he looked up at Jiyeon, who was sitting on a tree. He simply gave her a small smile and finally,

 

Seokwoo fainted, making the Battle Committee Med Team rush to his aid.

 

Yuna was there to witness everything. Her familiar, a pixie or a miniature fairy looked at her with a wide smile. “Yuna, I did it!” Her pixie-like voice chirped. She clapped. She’s pale, and she has long black hair that’s braided till the end. Her wings are coloured pink, and she matches it with a pink outfit, too. She was only as big as Yuna’s hands, and she fits perfectly in her bag pocket.

“Thank you, Arina.” Yuna thanked her widely. Yuna looked back at the strings between them. Seokwoo lost both of his purple string and his yellow string for Seungcheol and Jiyeon. The black is nowhere to be found as well. His blue string is beginning to fade, and Chaeyeon, who was acres away from them, seems to have accepted this as well. And his red, finally, now has stripes of blue.

 

He’s met his soulmate. And like the time when the golden heart was first reaped, when Luda and Seokwoo’s paths crossed, the string began to crystallize, forming a small, blue heart. It appeared right in front of Yuna, and she touched it. She felt something warming in her heart. The spectators, Mingyu, Seokmin, Wheein, Dongho, and a little bit later, Luda, watched as the heart fully crystallize and fall on the hands of Yuna. “A blue heart.” Luda began explaining. “Blue hearts supposedly holds no value, however,” Luda sprinkled it with fairy dust from her hand, and it soon transformed to a blue crystal rose. “The blue heart will hold its value as the most beautiful flower of them all.” Luda looked at the others and asked, “I think we can all agree that Yuna deserves this flower, right?”

Wheein nodded. “You had a long and tough day. If it wasn’t for you, Seungcheol would be dead and Seokwoo would be rotting in jail.”

Seokmin nodded and he smiled brightly, giving her a big thumbs up, “I should stick around with Yuna more!”

“You already were.” Mingyu retorted.

Dongho also made eye contact with Yuna and he nodded, finding a new-found respect for the fairy. “You did well.”

Maybe this day wasn’t so bad after all for Yuna.

* * *

 

Sojung looked at herself at the mirror. The feeling of death was gone, biut why does she still feel like this?

 

 

Why does she feel so empty?

 

* * *

 

Seungcheol went back to his mansion in Busay Falls. Four years ago, his father made him transfer to Busay Falls, as someone needs to look after their business here. He’s a working student, in all technicality. He stared at the black wall with the portrait of his father. Sighing, he went straight to his bedroom and to his desk. He opened his personal computer, and he looked up for his homework, but as he was scanning the folders one by one, he accidentally went through a secret folder. He saw **_their_** old photos before everything happened. He still feels sorry.

 

He’s dating someone new but why does he want to hold her hand?


	6. First Matching

* * *

The rain poured endlessly on that Thursday morning, and Yuna was not going to let her wings get drenched again for the second time this week so she had to wait in the bus stop with her wings retracted unto her back. Some kids who live in the same street as her were also waiting for the bus to arrive. She looked up to the sky and noted the darkness of the sky. **_Looks like the rain is not gonna end soon._** She heaved a heavy sigh and she grabbed her smartphone, a gadget she bought from a human mall prior to her election as the new fairy of love. The Unnatural world is basically too entangled with the human world, so pretty much everyone in class has one, and a personal computer in their houses.

As she was beginning to text her mother who’s at home, probably eating, she noticed one of the students. She was wearing a knee-high pair of boots and a raincoat. She had these big, blue eyes that seem to sparkle a bit. Yuna thought she was pretty, but maybe not Chaeyeon-level pretty, but still pretty enough. To her, the girl looks like she’s trying to avoid the water more than her, and Yuna can’t help but wonder why. She just shrugged it off as the bus arrived at her stop and the students begin entering the bus. Luckily, she still had a seat left, so she sat there. Most of the passengers were students, if not, elderly Unnaturals who are probably going to the market, some parents with their children, and much more. Her stop’s the last stop before school so she totally understands why there’s only one seat left.

And honestly, it didn’t take her long to get to the school. The gates were filled with running, hydrophobic Unnaturals trying their best not to get wet, some couples sharing an umbrella as she saw one holding hands. Unlucky them, though, they aren’t that fated. She would want to be hydrophobic or water-hating for today, but she found that there are more kids having a harder time than her. Mermaids can’t get wet, because they’ll grow tails. Fire Elementals can’t get wet, too, because their powers cancel out at the touch of fire. Dragons tolerate fire a lot better than them.

“Yuna, good morning!” **_Speaking of dragons._** She sighed as she saw Seokmin’s wide-ass smile first thing in the morning. It’s not like she’s grown tired of it, though. She sees him all the time. It’s been three days since school started, and she’s been hanging around him, Luda and Mingyu in Luda’s office. Apparently, Mingyu likes gossips and Seokmin is closest to Mingyu in his clique whereas Yuna is closest to Luda. Sojung hasn’t been in her office at all since Seungcheol and Seokwoo’s fight, and she’s seen Soonyoung every once in a while in the cafeteria, but since he’s been trying out for the dance club, they pretty much didn’t have the time to chit-chat. She’s also seen Dongho and Wheein, but since they had irregular classes for the last two days, she hasn’t been talking to the couple.

“Good morning to you, too, Seokmin.” Yuna answered with a smile in return. “Where’s Mingyu?”

“He went to the Assembly Hall first. He’s working with Luda in the Props Department.”

“Why do they need the Props Department for a Welcome Assembly, though?”

Seokmin shrugged. “I don’t know, honestly.”

Yuna just sighed as they continued walking to the Assembly Hall. Today’s the Welcome Assembly. Although school started unofficially two weeks ago, it’s yet to begin officially today. The students have been taking irregular classes, classes wherein Professors decide whether they would go to class or not, for two weeks already, and today marks their official first day. When they got to the Assembly Hall, one of the biggest buildings in school, more than half drenched students filled the place. Yuna and Seokmin aren’t, so they just left their umbrellas out to dry. The hall had like, twenty large glass windows, and two floors. The second floor holds the bleachers while the first floor has the grounds, sparkling and polished neatly. The stage is tall, and it has the podium on the centre and four chairs arranged properly, probably for school heads.

“All 1st year to 6th year students fall in line on the floor, 7th year to 12th year students, please go to the bleachers for the conference, thank you.” Youngbin, the fairy of leadership, also one of Yuna’s colleagues, spoke upon entrance of the students. He smiled brightly when he saw Yuna. “Good morning, Yuna.”

She took note of his uniform which looked altered for occasion. Instead of the usual white coat for everyone and the baston-styled pants for boys, Youngbin has a dark green shirt, loose pants closed-off with army boots, and he has a sword on his right side. “What’s with the outfit?”

“Ah, I’m a part of the Cadets of Busay, we take charge in helping the Professors during Assembly.” He pointed at Seokmin. “Your dragon friend here left the team last semester.”

Seokmin scratched his head and just smiled widely, “Sorry, Hyung. It’s getting hectic for me.”

He nodded as he patted Seokmin on his shoulder. “I know, but come back on your 7th year, alright?” He looked over at Yuna, next. “So, do you have a club to join in, soon?”

Yuna shook her head. “I don’t even know my year level, Oppa.”

The two boys blinked.

 

 

“EH?!” They chorused, making Yuna step back a few steps.

“Yeah, Yongsun-unnie graduated early, and I’ve been attending classes from her since first year, so I don’t really know.” Yuna shrugged, realizing the complications of her enrolment in school. As said before, trainee fairies are not allowed to be seen by others, so they are schooled by the fairies in their homes after the classes for regular Unnaturals finish. “Heck, I don’t even know the system here.”

“What batch are you, Yuna?” Youngbin asked.

“1997.”

He looked at Seokmin, then back at Yuna. “Then you’re in 5th year. The school system here is pretty simple. In the morning, you take up classes that are a must, for example, for fifth year –“ Youngbin glanced at Seokmin. “What do you have in 5th year?” He asked him.

“Homeroom, Biology, Physics, Pre-calculus and Geology.”

“Yeah, then in the afternoon, you’ll take your major classes, for us fairies, it’s the irregular classes you had for the past few days. So maybe Potions, Physical Ed every now and then Flight, Fairy Magic and such.” Yuna nodded. “That’s all you pretty much need to know about the system here. Your homeroom professor will explain to you about the pack system.”

She looked up at Seokmin. “Pack system?”

He only smiled smugly, and he pulled her away from Youngbin to go to their line, their batch’s line. “The Professor will tell us later, come along. Thanks, hyung!”

“Yeah, no prob!” He answered as he watched the two disappear from his sight, and he went on to announce the same thing he was announcing before Yuna and Seokmin came along to chat.

The two soon joined the long line of 5th year students. Some faces were notable to Yuna. She’s been reading Luda’s notes since the first day and she recalled some of them. For instance is Jihyo, the girl who ranked third in the top couples list with her boyfriend, Wonwoo. The Hybrid who appears to be Seungcheol’s friend. Luda’s data noted that Jihyo’s family owns the biggest library in town, and she’s a Strzyga, the Unnaturals who turn to owls at will. She saw her talking to Nam Dawon, one of Jiyeon’s yellow strings who’s a Strzyga like her. She noticed that Dawon is a lot taller than Jihyo and her eyes are much smaller. They were with another girl, but Yuna can’t recall the last girl.

 

And it didn’t take long for the ceremony to start, and finally end.

* * *

 

After the Assembly, the homeroom classes were soon revealed in the bulletin board, not much of a surprise, but Seokmin, Yuna, Luda and Mingyu are all in the same class, and they immediately went to their classroom. There are lots of students in their batch, but they just **_had_** to be grouped together for who knows what reason.Chaeyeon and Dongmin were also in the same batch but they were in different classes. And honestly, Yuna felt out of place. Most of them, even the anti-social Luda, had someone say hi to them. Probably because they’ve known each other for at least two years now. Since they didn’t even say hi to Yuna, the fairy just glanced at their hands, “Time for some badass matchmaking.” She told herself as she sat on the chair behind Luda and next to Mingyu. She, Mingyu and Seokmin were in the taller side, but they had to sit alternately, some strange protocol their adviser noted on the chalkboard, so she and Mingyu sat on the last row.  Yuna has someone sitting next to her, but she can’t recall his face. She did, see him once in Luda’s papers. He’s probably one of the popular kids, which probably made him make it to the “to remember” faces but sadly, Yuna can’t remember him. What’s interesting though, are his strings. He only has two strings, red and white. For a guy, maybe it’s a good thing, since it’s been a while since she’s seen someone whose relationships are only to his family and to his soulmate. His string, however, is not attached to anyone in the room. Too bad for Yuna.

Moving on to the next person, and that Unnatural would be Nam Dawon. She’s tall, around Yuna’s height and she wears bangs as well, only that Dawon’s hair is much lighter than Yuna’s. Dawon also has pretty eyes, and she wears heels on her shoes to make herself a bit taller, as if she wasn’t tall enough. She’s seen to be talking to a small crowd of girls, and she seems to be the centre of attention between them. Luda’s profile about Dawon described her as someone who’s cheerful and fun to be with, and she seems to be too kind for her own good. She also noted that Dawon and Jiyeon used to be close friends before one of Jiyeon’s ex-boyfriends, werewolf Kim Jonghyun had a thing for Dawon. Since the girl wasn’t interested at all, she turned him down but hers and Jiyeon’s friendship broke down completely. Rumour has it that she cried two weeks straight because of the torn apart friendship between the two of them. Yuna stared at her hands, which has all of the colours except for purple, which is not unusual for girls. She soon noticed that Yuna was staring at her, startling her for a bit, but she soon waved a small “hi” with a pretty eyesmile. Yuna found it pretty and she smiled back at her. It didn’t take long before Dawon joined her, and when she came in closer, she saw the connection between Dawon’s strings,

 

 

 

 

**_And Mingyu’s._ **

Yuna gasped at the back of her mind, trying not to let the others know since they probably don’t know that she sees strings because both Mingyu and Seokmin asked her how she knows if two people are soulmates yesterday.

**_So wait, Mingyu is one-sidedly in love with Dawon? And here I thought Seungcheol and Sojung are the complicated ones._** Speaking of them. Yuna thought once more as she remembered the “complicated” pair. Based from what Seokwoo said during their brawl, Seungcheol’s father was the one who killed Sojung’s mother, and she found it out during their dating period, and they broke up. **_Is love really that easy to throw away?_** She can’t help but ask, but there’s no one to answer.

Dawon smiled at her cheekily. Yuna was really amazed by her beauty. It wasn’t an ethereal beauty like Chaeyeon’s or Kyulkyung’s, a younger student; it was beauty that was brought out by the inner personality. “Hi, I’m Dawon!” She gave her hand to Yuna, and she accepted it with a handshake.

“I’m Yuna.”

Mingyu smiled and pointed at Dawon. “This Miss-Pretty-Smile here is the class rep for every single class I’ve been with her!” He boasted, like a proud-ass boyfriend would, in Yuna’s eyes. She saw the blue-red string between them tighten as Dawon smiles another smile.

“That’s already for three straight years, right?” Dawon asked Mingyu, and as Mingyu looked at her with heart emojis and smileys, the two fairies threw a glance at each other, and unsurprisingly enough, with the use of fairy telepathy, the two of them began talking – or rather – telepathy-ing each other.

_“Mingyu totally likes Dawon, doesn’t he?”_ Yuna asked through her mind.

“ _Of course he does, he has all these puppy eyes for him.”_ Luda noted, to which Yuna agreed at. _“Are you planning to extract a golden heart from them?”_

_“Nah, there are no gold strings, I realized that it might be hard to get a gold heart from pairs without it. I’ll just look for them then extract it.”_

_“Yo look outside from the 3 rd floor building, noonas.” _Another fairy just came through their communication. Of course, it just had to be Daehwi, who was passing by their classroom. The two other fairies glared at the younger fairy as he escaped before the two could act.

Yuna, curious at what Daehwi said, looked down, only to find a lingering gold string, slowly attaching itself to a tall woman and her red string. Yuna’s eyes widened at the identity of this woman and her strings.

 

 

 

 

**_She has to match Kim Sojung and Choi Seungcheol and extract a heart from them._ **


	7. The Packs

When Yuna realized that she had to match the two exes, her mind went blank, and her face went blank, too. **JUST HOW WILL SHE MAKE TWO EXES COME BACK TOGETHER? OR MAYBE JUST MAKE THEM REALIZE THEIR LOVE FOR EACH OTHER.** Frustrated, she leaned her head on the table and sighed.Dawon and Luda noticed this, and the fairy nudged her.

“What’s up with you?” Luda asked. This time with telepathy, she asked, _“Is this about Seungcheol and Sojung?”_

Yuna nodded. _“I need to know more about those two before I can match them.”_ She glanced at Luda. “Help me cut class.” Her classmates suddenly stared at her, and Luda, wide-eyed, shook her head. When Yuna realized what she just said, her fingers curled up. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?”

Seokmin and Mingyu, who were also waiting for an answer just nodded, and Seokmin broke to a smile. “Yes, you did.”

Luda crossed her arms and cupped her chin. “Rather than cutting classes, there’s someone in here who knows more about that story than I do.”

Yuna raised a brow at her friends. “Whoa, the fairy of knowledge missed out on something?”

“It doesn’t interest me, so I only know of the usual stuffs that were spread out, like, Seungcheol’s dad is the reason why Sojung’s mum died. But other than that, my knowledge regarding this issue is not that much since like I said, I don’t care about whether they broke up or not.”

The love fairy rolled her eyes. “Makes sense as to why it was written on your notes, ‘ ** _broke up, don’t know why’.”_**

“Exactly. And besides, I wasn’t even elected at that time. It was two years ago, right?”

“So who is this person?”

She pointed at Dawon, who raised her brow. “Me?”

“You were my predecessor’s assistant, right?”

Yuna’s brows keep rising at the revelations today. “Wait, fairies are allowed to get assistants?”

“Knowledge fairies are.” Luda pointed at Mingyu who was listening to them completely. “It’s like me and Mingyu. He’s my assistant.”

“So you weren’t just looking out for gossips?”

Mingyu choked at shot a cute glare at Yuna. “Hey, I’m moral!”

Yuna shook her head in disagreement and decided to change the topic quickly, and she moved on to Mingyu’s crush, Dawon. “You know a lot about them?”

Dawon shrugged and nodded. “Yes, I had to archive them, so if there’s anyone who knows this story more than anyone, it’s me.”Dawon took her bag from the front row and sat on the vacant seat in front of Luda. And yes, storytime for the group began, “The thing is, _Sojung-unnie isn’t a pure banshee_ ; she became a banshee after her mother’s death. Her father is a Dhampir, a human-vampire, and her mom is human.”

“Is that even allowed to happen?” Yuna looked at Luda, then at Dawon. “Like, she would only have a fourth-vampire blood, is that even valid for Banshee transformation?” She reasoned. In order for someone to turn to a banshee, she must have dark-sided parentage, wherein one of her parents should be an unnatural who is evil by nature like demons, vampires and the likes, and a human parent. The dark-sided parentage would have to be a great percentage above her humanly parentage. The person also has to experience great loss in order to turn to a banshee. Sojung fits the last criteria but Yuna wasn’t sure if she fits the first part, though.

“As long as you have dark-sided parentage and more than half of your DNA is human, it’s fine.” Luda explained, to which Yuna nodded at and Dawon continued talking.

“The thing is, about Sojung, she lived all her life believing that she’s all human, and her parents all are humans, too. So everything is humanly to her. She used to live in Manila, the capital human city here.” She explained to them. “It’s also where Unnaturals from this country meet every seven years but I’ll tell you more about that next time.” Then she came back to the Sojung topic. “Anyway, back in Manila, there was what they called the **_cleansing of the bloodline_** for a vampire clan.” Dawon took out her phone from her pocket and she scrolled it down and showed them a photo. It’s an older man who looks a lot like Seungcheol, with the pale skin and the lips. “He’s SeverinoChoi. The current head of the Choi clan, he’s also Seungcheol’s father.”

“What about Sojung, then? What’s he got to do with them?”

“The cleansing of the bloodline, which was held for almost twenty years until seven years ago, under tyrant clan leaders, happened to clear off hybrids, and Sojung’s father, Anthony Kim, is a dhampir under that clan. Dhampirs are their servants, and they do their dirty work.” She slid to the next photo. “That’s him. He was notorious for going against the clan’s beliefs, which includes his arranged marriage with a pure vampire, after marrying a human, Sojung’s mum, Savannah, he was excommunicated soon after Sojung was born.”

Yuna raised a brow. “If they were excommunicated, then how did Severino manage to get his hands on Savannah?”

“Here’s where Seokwoo gets into the story. As we all know, Seokwoo is half vampire-werewolf, a hybrid. On the last year of the cleansing, Seokwoo’s parents were exposed, so they hid in Sojung’s family, since Anthony and Seokwoo’s dad are siblings.”

“Making them cousins.”

“Technically, yes.” She shot a glare at Mingyu. “Can I finish my story, Mingyu?” Mingyu just nodded and Dawon continued to tell the story. “So, after that, the Chois found out, and Severino personally came to execute Anthony and Seokwoo’s parents –“

 

Then it hit Yuna.

“But he only found Sojung’s mum.” Everyone looked at Yuna, who answered the final line. “Am I right?”

Dawon nodded. “Correct. That’s when Sojung’s mother died, and after that, her father and Seokwoo’s father both sent her and Seokwoo here at Busay with their vampire grandmother. After her transfer here at Busay, she realized that she can forsee deaths, so her grandma sent her to the City Fairy of Truth. That’s where she realized that she turned to a banshee.” She showed them old photos of the couple, “She entered school, and that’s when she met Seungcheol. They started off as friends, but later on, they turned to lovers.” She stopped for a bit and smiled sadly. “But as Seokwoo’s protective instinct kicked in, he investigated about her mother’s death, and he found Seungcheol’s relation to it, but he wanted to protect her feelings, so he didn’t say it, however, fate is somehow, playful.”

“She found it out the hard way.” Luda added.

Dawon nodded. “It was on their first-year anniversary. Sojung –” Dawon suddenly stopped when she realized that the professor arrived. “I’ll finish my talk later at lunch. The prof is here.” They all satproperly as the professor, also their homeroom adviser, shuffled his items and smiled at the class. Yuna remarked his dinosaur-like face that would make her mistake him for a dragon. Dongho and Seokmin’s faces are shaped in the same way. But he’s too pale in Yuna’s eyes. His lips are pink and he looks like a flower boy, too. She thinks that he may be a vampire, too.

“I’m Professor Lee JongSuk, your professor for Homeroom and Biology.” Yuna can notice some of the girls swooning, and also Luda, smiling like there’s no end in tomorrow. **_Infatuation,_** as Yuna may call it. The professor is good looking, so girls naturally swoon at the sight of him.

Yuna passed telepathy to Luda, asking, _“What is he?”_

_“Human.”_ Yuna swears she almost choked when she heard this, and she looked over at Mingyu and asked the same thing, not using her telepathy, but her mouth, instead, and he answered the same thing. Luda rebutted with a small, “ _Have you ever seen a vampire teaching biology? That’s wrong in so many ways.”_

_“Why, can’t they?”_

_“A vampire? Seeing blood in class? Even Professor Song can’t help himself at the sight of blood. And he’s just a Dhampir.”_

_“Point taken.”_

“So before anyone starts doing stuffs here in this class,let me get this straight to everyone.” He starts, starting to pull out some visual aids he probably prepared way back, as it looks quite neat. “I will be explaining the _pack system_ in this school, and pretty much every other Unnatural High School in this globe.” With a touch of his hand, or rather, his _wand,_ as it appeared on his hand, three circles formed on the blackboard. Yuna noted the perfectness of the said circles, and it’s due to magic, because you can’t really form a perfect circle without magic. “The pack system works like this. You, the kids in this class, will form into groups. It may be formed with four or six members, and the group, now known as a pack, will be joining together for a semester, and they will be doing jobs for the townspeople, school staffs and some of the fairies, if they ask for some.” He looked over at the class list. “I have two fairies in this class, right? Can you please raise your hands?” Both Luda and Yuna raised their arms, and when the professor nodded in acknowledgement, they both put it down. “You two are still obliged to join a pack, regardless. You may do jobs put up by one fairy or the other, then after doing the jobs, if the job is from a fairy, either the school’s fairy of truth or the town’s fairy of truth will give you rewards. Then if it's from a staff or someone from the town, the person who put up that request will be the one who will give you your reward." He then began listing letters from A to F. “Each letter corresponds to a level of difficulty of the mission with A being the hardest and F being the easiest. The letters will also serve as the point system, and when you accomplish the task, these are the points you’ll be able to get. By the end of the semester, you must have 2000 points.” He began writing the corresponding points.

  * A = 300 Points
  * B = 200 Points
  * C = 100 Points
  * D = 75 Points
  * E = 50 Points
  * F = 20 Points.



When he finished writing on the board, one of the students raised up his arm in question. “Sir, what about S-level tasks?”

The Professor raised a brow. “You guys are only in Year Five! Don’t reach for something you’re not supposed to do.” He scolded him, and the student put his hand back down. “You’re not supposed to take S-level tasks. Only 7th Year and older packs can take those tasks. If you take one, even though it’s by accident, you will be penalized off 500 points, am I clear?”

“Yes, Professor.” The class chorused.

“Now, for the rest of the two hours in homeroom, I want you to group yourselves. Remember that these people will be your allies for the whole semester, choose wisely and write your names in one half sheet of bond paper and pass it to me.” He sat down on his chair, and the moment he did, the kids grouped up, and so did Yuna and her group.

“Isn’t it already a given that we’re going to be in one pack?” Mingyu asked with his wide, canine smile. “Right? Right?”

Luda nodded in agreement then she looked over at Seokmin and Yuna. “By the looks of it, these two are already partners, and one will decide on whether they will team up with us or not.”

“Partners? Is that another concept?” She asked Luda and Mingyu.

“Ah, that’s just within the group, that’s why it’s two or four, because within the group, we have to pair up, too.” Mingyu explained then he pointed at Luda. “I work with her, so technically, she’s my partner. We can do up to three jobs if there’s six of us in one pack, and two if there’s just for of us.” He raised a brow at both of them.

Seokmin threw a glance at Yuna and raised his brow now. “So, what do you say?”

Yuna scratched her head, “Well, I barely know anyone in this class, and to make matters worse, we have to group up at the first meeting, so I guess?” She looked at him for confirmation. “Why not?”

Seokmin showed off his gummy smile and answered, “Yeah, okay, so us and you two,” he noted, pointing at Luda and Mingyu. “are on a pack? Is that final because dude, I’d write it on the one-half bond paper now.”

“Hey, can we jump in?” The four of them piqued up when they heard two voices. One belonged to Dawon, and one is from someone Yuna can’t recognize.

“A-yo!” A tall Unnatural beamed at them. He’s a little bit shorter than Mingyu, but he’s still tall in his own league. He has brown hair, much like everyone else in school who hasn’t done bleaching. He also has his canine teeth shown, pretty much an indication that he’s a werewolf. “Hey there, Mingming, Lulu, Seokminseok,” Then he laid his eyes on Yuna. “And the new Love Fairy who looks so fine.” He smiled at them. “It’s Yugyeom.”

“Yugyeom is fine. We were in the same class last year, and the same pack, too.” Luda explained in agreement.

“We were partners, Lulu.” He called her endearingly. “But this year, I’m paring up with our international playgirl cutie here, Miss Dawon.” He teased her.

“Stop calling me that.”  And they laughed it off.

Seokmin happily wrote their names and then he went off to pass it to the Professor. A weird line-up, as he may say. Two fairies, two wolves, a Strzyga and a dragon. But he was smiling.

 

 

**_Maybe this year’s pack will be fun. Way better than last year’s._ **


	8. Our Game Plan

****

* * *

 

“What is up with you?” Mingyu asked as he passed Yuna and Luda their herb buns and bottles of honeycomb juice, a favourite and must-eat items for fairies. “Jeez, these aren’t even tasty. Why can you eat them?”

“Shut it, omnivore.” Luda snatched her food from his hand and she took a bite from it as she began observing Yuna, who’s eating her lunch while watching the basketball team. “And hey, of all places you would want to watch basketball players, do we need to watch here, where the team, and mind you, the cheerleaders would see us?” She added with sarcasm.

Dawon, who was eating manna bread also asked, “I know this place is very airy, but honey, why?” They were located on the viewing deck of the basketball gym where at one look up, everyone can see them. They weren’t the only ones in the viewing deck, but they were the only group who has that many connections down there.

Yuna chewed on her bread and looked at Seungcheol, who was currently playing together with Seokwoo against the players of Manila Unnatural High, another high school from Unnaturals in a different city. She saw Sojung and her bored expression by the sides of the bleachers. “Looks like Sojung got forced by Seokwoo to watch his game.” Luda explained as she continued munching on her food. “She makes that expression whenever Seokwoo makes her watch his games.”

Yuna watched the boys shoot, dunk and steal. But most importantly, she watches their strings. Sojung may look uninterested, but her strings fail to hide her excitement whenever Seungcheol or Seokwoo makes a hoop. The gold-red string between them tightens whenever Seungcheol shoots, and Yuna can’t help but be fascinated by it. Sojung and Seungcheol may be apart from each other physically, but their strings still connect them.

She saw them lock eyes for a second then Yuna began feeling their heartbeats.

 

**_“They said whenever you start chasing hearts, you end up feeling their hearts.”_ **

Seungcheol’s heart began to beat faster than usual, and Sojung’s heart jumped when they locked eyes. He tried to smile at her, but his half-smile soon faded when he saw Jeonghan, a nephilim, according to Luda’s data, smiled and gave Sojung a sandwich and soda, and he sat next to her. Yuna noticed that they have blue strings connected to them. “What a beautiful but unfated relationship.” Yuna can only breathe a sad sigh that was left noticed by her partner, who’s now sitting next to her.

“What is it?” He asked.

“Well, Sojung-unnie and Jeonghan-ssi are a sad story.” She looked up at him. “Hey, aren’t these two friends?” She asked, eventually pointing at Seungcheol and then Jeonghan.

“Best of friends, actually.” Seokmin clarified as he drank from his extra-spicy chilli shake. “Damn, this drink is extra hot so it’s extra good.” When he was done sipping from the drink, he began to add, “They grew up together, with Joshua-hyung, Dongho-hyung, werewolf Jonghyun-hyung, Minki-hyung and Minhyun-hyung, also, me and Mingyu live in the same dorm as them.”

“Then what’s with them?” She asked, referring to Sojung and Jeonghan's relationship.

“It just happened. Boys take dating a friend’s ex-girlfriend much lightly than girls do.” He stopped for a bit then suddenly, Yuna’s face brightened, as she thought of an idea to get more information other than Dawon’s background of the study, which she finished telling earlier. Of course Yuna’s thankful that Dawon gave her the background of the story, but she needs more than just the past in order to match up the exes and extract the damned golden heart, and she just thought of the most perfect idea.

“Luda!” She called the fairy of Knowledge. “So how do we get make up a request for a task?”

“We bring it up to Ahin to rank it according to levels then bring it to Chaeyeon to note it then to Youngbin-oppa to sign it. Why’d you ask?” The girl narrowed her eyes. “Don’t tell me you have fairy jobs to do already?”

“It’s about my task.”

 

Oops. Yuna said that out loud.

“What task?” Seokmin suddenly asked. “Come to think about it, Chaeyeon and Luda had to find seven whatsoevers in order to keep their fairy title by the end of the semester. What about you?”

Yuna sighed, looks like she has to tell them about it. “I have to find seven golden hearts. It’s similar to the rose we formed during Seokwoo and Seungcheol’s match.” She looked at Seungcheol, who was passing the ball to Seokwoo. “And I have to get one from Seungcheol and Sojung-unnie.”

“So that’s why you were asking about Sojung and Seungcheol.” Dawon nodded with the realization. She glanced at Luda, asking, “We can file a **_pack task,_** right? The graded tasks we can do to help one another.”

Luda nodded, and commended her wit. “Smart, Dawon. We can get points, and Yuna will benefit from it, too.” The fairy smiled at her friends and smirked, “Alrighty, then. Let’s get to work.”

* * *

 

Well, getting a pass for the pack task was easy. What makes it different from ordinary tasks is that if one of your pack members is a fairy and she or he needs help, then the pack would like to do it to help one another, they can file a request to do it themselves. Getting one for Yuna’s task was easy. Luda basically sent Ahin to a guilt trip, then Seokmin bribed Chaeyeon with Honeycomb Juice, so Youngbin giving a go-signal wasn’t a hard task, at all.

The harder part is **_how_** will they get the information they need to get the damned golden heart. After Potions class, her last class for the rest of the day, Yuna and the rest of her pack went off to the closest cafe to their school, Unnatural Brews. It was only a walking distance away from school, and there are lots of cafes near school but this is the only place that serves Yuna’s favourite – of course, none other else but Elf Cow Milky Coffee. Fairies are naturally vegetarians, so they can’t eat anything that came from animals except milk. She dislikes ordinary cow or any other types of milk. This is also the only place that serves super-dee-duper Spicy Hot Pepper Juice, which is Seokmin’s favourite drink. Others would only sell Super-Duper Spicy, but for Draconians, the hotter the better. “Ah, finally, break came to an end and I can finally taste the ultimate of them all!” Seokmin cheered and her lightly elbowed Mingyu. “I can taste the smell of the best drink in our region. I bet the Manila kids are loving this, too!”

 “I heard the super-dee-duper Spicy Hot Pepper Juice got sold out when the Draconian Basketball players from Manila found out that they sold stuffs like this here.” Luda nonchalantly said as Mingyu opened the door for her and they went in. “Exhibit A.” She said as she pointed to the crowded cafe of Basketball players from the other school and fangirls trying to sneak a peek on their favourite players.

Seokmin’s jaw dropped and he sighed, “I hope they still have some for me, I missed this so much!”

Yuna raised a brow at him. “Didn’t you have some during the first two weeks of school?”

“They don’t open up during the first few weeks.” Dawon informed Yuna. They all left their bags on the eight-seater table, and went to the cashier to order. After ordering the food that they wanted to eat, they sat on the seat they saved for themselves and they began munching it. Actually, it was quiet for a while since they had to taste the good feeling of their food, until Dawon finally spoke up. “So what are we gonna do about Seungcheol and Sojung-unnie?”

Yuna frowned as she continued chewing her bread. “I don’t know any of your relationships with the two!” She protested. “And Sojung-unnie and I are close but not super close.”

“Who’s closer? You and Lulu or you and Sojung-noona?” Yugyeom asked while taking in a spoonful of his Beef Estufado.

“Definitely me and Luda.” Yuna finished confidently. She looked over at her. “Right?”

Luda shrugged. “If you say so.” She began taking out a folder from her bag and she placed it on the table. “Here, Yuna.”

Yuna opened it and she saw their pack’s stats from everyone’s weak points to their strongest points. “Whoa! It says here that **_despite Mingyu being a werewolf, he’s actually very handy and he’s in the club Unnatural Fixers of Busay. He’s well-knowledgeable about the latest fixes._** It also says that you live in Yellow Dorm.” She flipped to Seokmin’s page. “And you too.”

The two boys nodded, and then Yugyeom raised a brow. “But Seungcheol-hyung lives there, too, right?”

“He does when he doesn’t have jobs in his mansion.” As if a light bulb appeared in front of their eyes, Mingyu and Seokmin both gave each other a high five, and the ideas soon came in. “Ah, right! You know Dongho-hyung is dating Wheein-noona, right?” Mingyu asked Yuna.

“Yeah. Luda listed them as one of the top couples in the school, why’d you ask?”

“Wheein-noona is best friends with Sojung-noona!”

 

 

It processed to Yuna for a bit. “EH?!” That combination, to her is strange. One of the tallest banshees meeting the short one is a rare sight for her. The short elf and the tall banshee was an unlikely pair. How do they even talk? Yuna’s already having a hard time talking to Mingyu, and they’re not that far apart with their heights, how do they do it?

“And Dongho-hyung lives in the same dorm as us!” Mingyu gave a thumbs-up, and the two fairies began thinking while they were eating.

“What about you two, Dawon, Yugyeom?” Yuna asked.

Dawon smiled a nervous smile, and when she did, Yuna became nervous, too. “I’m banned from the Yellow Dorm.”

“Because of Minhyun?” Luda asked, indicating that she and Minhyun had something in the past. “You were exes, right?”

She nodded. “He dumped me for Nayoung.” Dawon added. “But I heard he and Nayoung broke up after the waterfall incident.” She noted, looking now at Yuna. “Are you really not gonna tell me who’s my soulmate, Yuna?”

Yuna nicely shook her head in apology. “Sorry, Fairy Law.”

“Understood.”

“I know Minghao—“ Yugyeom began, but Luda cut him off.

“I know him, too.”

“Help me here, don’t butt in, let me finish girl!” Luda rolled her eyes at Yugyeom’s remark and he continued. ”And Minghao and his partner back then, you know her, the wide-eyes Strzyga at class, Choi Yuju,” He stopped, pointing at Yuna. “Your pen name in the internet is Yuju, but it’s not you so calm yourself,” He reminded her, referring to her UnnaturalBook name. “Anyway, they used to be in the same pack with me when WonCheol happened, and they did a job for Seungcheol’s father. After that job, the WonCheol couple broke down to pieces.”

That gave Yuna the finest idea to break everyone into pairs, and have them work so they can get the work done faster and easier. “I got it! Yugyeom and Dawon, can you two get Minghao and the other Yuju to talk about that task?”

The two nodded. “I like talking!” Yugyeom cheered.

“Then maybe Luda and Mingyu can look for the archives about the couple in the past Knowledge Fairy’s data.” Luda gave as mall nod as she sipped on her favourite drink. “And me and Seokmin will go to Yongsun-unnie. She must know something about this couple, I mean, **_she was_** the Love Fairy at that time, and it’s not like we bother archiving couples.” She noted, reminding herself of the couple’s ending back then as said by Dawon. **_On their first-year anniversary, they broke up. Even the Love Fairy at that time, Yongsun-unnie, wasn’t able to do something about it. Rumour has it that they broke up because of Seungcheol’s father. He has always been against on a mixed bloodline. But ever since that day, Seokwoo began detesting Seungcheol, hating on him and held a grudge against him. He became overly protective of Sojung._** She closed her eyes for a bit, and began arranging her thoughts. **_How can they throw their love away that easily?_** She can’t help but ask. Luda told her that love comes in many ways, but what about in this case?

 

How will she get a golden heart from a couple who looks like they’ve thrown their love away?

 

* * *

 

Sojung glanced at the sunset as she walks towards it. Her house was in the west, so she has to look at it every day. She would want to go straight to the boarding house – her grandmother’s, and see her cousin, Seokwoo, and probably a few of the boarders, but she passed through a park. She knew this park all too well. The swing where the kids would play, the tree that was so high up, and she would see couples kissing up there.

 

**_We kissed there, too._** She can only smile bitterly.

She tightened her grip on her bag and she quickly walked away.

 

**_“Let the past be in the past. It’s much more beautiful that way.”_** She told herself as she passed through a big, black mansion. And she stopped. Realizing that she took the wrong street from the park, she looked up at the said mansion. “ _I was happier with him, but we were ill-fated.”_ She turned her back and walked away, contemplating about fate, and its strings.


	9. Love, sometimes

* * *

 

Dawon and Yugyeom, who lives in the southern part of the town, are starting to get lost on the eastern part of it. Busay Falls may be small, but it’s most definitely not small enough for you not to get lost. Minghao and the other Yuju, not their Yuju, lives on that side of the city. It was also getting dark, so the two were not sure whether to go back or not. Minghao was supposed to still be in school because of dance practice, but apparently, he skipped practice for no reason. Yoo Taeyang, Dawon’s friend and Minghao’s Dance teammate was left annoyed, so they had no choice but to look for him at the east. The east was always the quietest part of the city. It would only be loud when there are fights or during festivals.

But today is just too quiet that it’s scary. Dawon, although a Strzyga, and considering that her natural habitat is the calmness and silence, she’s actually pretty scared of what might happen. Tightening her grip on Yugyeom’s backpack, the two walked down the lonely street, hoping to find someone who can show them the way or some sort. “Hey, Dawon.” He suddenly called her out, startling her a bit.

“What is it?”

“Have you ever wondered why Draconians don’t drink fairy blood?”

Dawon couldn’t help but raise a brow. “From what I know, rather than helping Draconians, fairy blood deteriorates their own blood, making it impossible for reproduction of their kind. So if they mate with a fairy, their dragon blood will die out, and their child will be a fairy by default.” She stopped a bit before catching up to his pace once more. “Why did you ask?”

She stared directly at Yugyeom’s eyes. He’s playful and he has lots of charms, but he’s wise. Compared to werewolves his age, including Mingyu, he was always referred to as someone intelligent, someone on a Strzyga’s level. This is what made Dawon choose him. But his intellect is mysterious. She’s heard of his past when she was a Fairy Assistant. As they say, any publicity is good publicity, but for a werewolf who’s highly intellectual, it’s not. Elderly wolves frequently referred to smart werewolves as werewolves who are away from their hunting instinct, that it’s just a phase. He just shook his head at her question. “Nothing. It’s just that we tend to believe in things that are passed down to us, not bothering to look for the truth.”

She raised a brow once more then she let out a light chuckle. “Is this for a study of yours? You still do that?”

He shrugged. “It’s my curiosity. And if I finish this study, I can go through the final year without having to write a study”

“Good for you.” Dawon congratulated him but then, they both stopped on their tracks. Their heightened senses made them feel it. A powerful presence that seems to have sent shivers to their spine. Dawon prepared her wings to fly and Yugyeom readied his claws, and as a technique of self-defence, the two stood back-to-back. “What could this be?” Dawon asked.

“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it can’t be good.”

“Should I lift off?”

“That,” Yugyeom shrugged, but his eyes widened when he heard rustling from the leaves. He smelled its scent, and his claws became longer. “If it comes out to be a big one and we can’t fight it, fly and get the others. Fairy Dust should be able to paralyze it even for a bit.”

“You’ll hold it down, then?”

Yugyeom nodded as the both prepared their parts. He could hearit coming from the back, in front of Dawon. “It’s coming from your twelve-o-clock.”

“I heard it too.” The rustles soon turned to definite steps, making their defence much tighter and stronger. The footsteps soon turned louder. Dawon identified it as rubber shoes. “Put that claw back down.” She told Yugyeom as she finally saw who it was. She also retracted her wings and separated her back from Yugyeom as he faced her front as well.

“Hey!” He yelled. “You scared the heck out of me, **_Xu Minghao!”_**

Minghao, a slanted-eye kitsune, also the one who they were looking for, also had his tails, two of them, up for defence. “You, what are you two doing here?!” He frowned and retracted his tails back into his body. He had a disappointed look on his face and a frown. “Just when I thought that I’m about to see a fight here in the east.” Minghao is tall, but not taller than Yugyeom. He had brown hair, and the trademark yellow eyes of a kitsune. “What brings you two southerners in the east, anyway? Didn’t think I’d see you guys here.”

Dawon just went straight to the point. “We came to talk to you.”

He raised a brow. “After your fight with Minhyun-hyung you didn’t even bother to talk to me, Dawon.” He smiled it off and said, “My apartment is on the next block. It’s a little messy there, and I live with a few other kids, so should we go there or should we talk somewhere else?”

“I’m fine with talking anywhere.” Yugyeom answered and he looked over at Dawon. “You?”

“Yeah, definitely.” They went straight to the corner and went up to the fifth floor. He resides in the third door with three more kids from school. Dawon noticed them almost immediately. The three kids all had weird-coloured hairs. They had them dyed. Dawon and Yugyeom both know who they are. They were the dancing upperclassmen and lowerclassmen. All of them were in dancing teams. The pink-haired one is Junhui, the captain of the hip-hop team. He was sitting on the sofa, on his phone. The girl who has white and brown hair is Chengxiao, the ace of the rhythmic gymnastics team. She is behind the counter, chopping vegetables for dinner. The last, orange-haired girl is Mina. She’s a member of the ballet club and she’s watching a drama when they arrived. When they saw the two schoolmates enter, the two who were sitting on the sofa, stood up and actually fixed themselves.

“Oh, shoot.” Jun fell on the floor and dashed to his bedroom since he was topless, making Dawon and Yugyeom laugh while Mina scooted over to the edge of the sofa.

“Ey, what brings you guys here?” Mina asked as the two of them sat down.

“Mina, they need to talk to me, can you and Chengxiao head in for a bit?” Minghao asked his female housemate.

She raised a brow but she shook it off and she stood up. “Chengxiao, let’s go in for now.” She noted as she pulled the younger to their bedroom. When they finally left, the Minghao sat on the solo sofa in front of the long couch.

“So, what do you need to ask?”

The partners looked at each other with a knowing look that says, _we should just get to it._ The both exchanged nods and Dawon finally began. “We have a task from the new fairy of love as a team. And we need your help.”

He became curious. “You need fox power?” He asked, referring to his capabilities as a kitsune.

Yugyeom chuckled and shook his head. “No, no, that’s not what we need.” He immediately answered back. “We need information.”

“About what?”

“Two years ago.” Dawon began with seriousness. “Two years ago, you and Yuju took a job for Seungcheol’s father.”

Minghao blinked. “What about it?”

“What does that job have to do with Seungcheol and Sojung? What do you know about them?” Dawon began blasting with the questions.

Minghao furrowed his brows and became hesitant, but he soon opened up to them quickly. “Seungcheol’s father is very dirty, and that’s not very new to us common men. They’ve lost all their dhampir servants who do their dirty work a few years back after the end of the Cleansing, and we all know that.” He stared straight at them and added. “So no one can do their dirty work for them. And we took one job, but it was a job under Kim Youngbin.”

Yugyeom’s brows were raised now. He began looking for a reason. “Youngbin-hyung? The Fairy of Leadership? Why?” He glanced at Dawon, who had a blank expression, as if she knew about it. “Why is your expression like that?”

“Youngbin-oppa was the Fairy of Knowledge before Luda. Fairies that are in charge of Knowledge can change to Leadership once the Fairy of Leadership is promoted.” She explained. “I didn’t know that he has the habits of giving jobs.”

“Well, actually, that job was just a side-job. The actual job that Youngbin-hyung made was to look after Eunwoo, you know, the fourth year fairy. She took a job for Seungcheol-hyung’s father with her partner, but since Vampires are dangerous for Fairies, she had to be closely guarded.” Minghao explained. “Here is where me and Yuju fell into. Our job for the royal clan, the Chois, was to take care of the bodies they collected during the cleansing. We checked each and every one of them, added blood enhancers.” This is where he began sweating. The scene that happened two years ago is still visible to him. “And Sojung-noona’s mom’s body was there. When I saw her, I saw Sojung-noona. They were splitting images. And it creeped me out, honestly.”

“So you checked dead bodies then you saw Sojung’s mom? Oh, weird.” Yugyeom commented. “Then what happened next?”

“Well, we all know that Seungcheol’s father is a pure bloodline advocate, so he dislikes Sojung-noona. A lot. As in, like, it’s really really bad, his hatred towards her is **_really_** on another level of awful.” He sighed. “On the day I saw her mom’s body, Seungcheol’s dad called me up, and told me and Yuju to bring up her body to the main hall. Dude, I asked myself if the dad wanted walking dead to happen! And when we did, Sojung-noona was there, Seungcheol’s dad went loco and then he began to sermon stuffs like we should marry of the same blood, then he suddenly, using his magic, hanged up Sojung’s mom’s dead body on the chandelier!”

Well, that creeped the hell out of the duo. They threw each other a glance and they were both equally disgusted. “Are we gonna report this disgusting thing?” Yugyeom asked.

Dawon shook her head. “Let’s not give them the details.”

* * *

 

“You two should be thankful.” Wonwoo, the other hybrid in the school, told Mingyu and Luda as he opened the town’s public library’s door for them. “Thankful that I’m friends with both of you.” Wonwoo happens to be the major donor’s daughter’s boyfriend, so it was easy for them to get access to the archives. Using his – or rather, his girlfriend’s library card, he showed it to the librarian and she gave them the key to the fairy archive. He passed it onto Mingyu and said, “Here it is. Don’t destroy anything up there.”

Mingyu smiled, and his canine teeth showed on his grin. “Thanks, hyung.”

“Please, don’t break glasses or books there.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“I’ll be down here waiting for you, gonna read a book or two.”

Mingyu nodded then he slipped the key into his pocket as Wonwoo went to the shelves to pick a book. Mingyu glanced at Luda who has a poker-face painted on her face. She’s most likely not having it today. “What’s with the face?” He asked her.

“Sponsors can get access to the fairy archive but not fairies? Are they nuts?” She rolled her eyes. But she didn’t need to worry about it. The Fairies of Knowledge all have one password to use in cases like this when they need to use the archive, and it hasn’t been publicized. “So you’ll run, I’ll fly?” She asked him as she began spreading out her wings. In contrast to Yuna’s wings that look like a butterfly’s. Luda’s wings looks like a moth’s. It only had one colour, yellow. Bright Yellow. But unlike Yuna’s wings, her wings can get wet. Of course, it was part of their genes.

Mingyu passed her his bag and nodded. “Fly away, fairy.” Mingyu also turned to his werewolf form, a big one, at a that. His eyes turned orange, and his fur is grey. “Meet you up there.” He last told her before he ran off, and Luda noted that for a werewolf, he’s fast. It didn’t take long for Luda to fly up to the topmost floor. Her wings are strong, but as she got higher, it got harder for her to fly. Luckily though, she reached the tenth floor before she lost power on her wings. She blames it on Mingyu’s bag, too. She only has a drawstring bag but the wolf has a whole Herschel bag. The bigger ones. She thinks she brought his whole fridge inside. She retracted her wings as she waited for him outside the door to the archive. She tapped her feet and after about two minutes of waiting, he finally arrived. Panting, he returned back to his human form. “Sorry for making you wait.”

“I was only ahead for two minutes. Don’t think about it too seriously.” She looked at the door and Mingyu went ahead and opened it for her. He took her bag from him. “Ah, don’t make me take that bag later. It’s too heavy.”

“But I’ll look like Dora the Werewolf!”

“I’ll just pretend that what you said actually makes sense.” When they got in, it wasn’t that awe-worthy. It’s dome-like, like the study dome at school, only that it’s filled with books, and there’s a glass barrier from the table to the shelves. The glass barrier has a door that can be only opened by a password. Luda brought out her fairy pen, a magical pen that’s similar to the fairy glasses that the function will depend on the fairy’s position. For Luda, her fairy pen will make searching easier for her. However, one common function that the fairy pen has is its magical writing. Fairies wrote their passwords in magical writing so that only fairies can see it, too. With it, Luda wrote the password on the door. **_Alfa._**

“Alfa?” Mingyu asked.

“It’s fairy in Latin.” She shot him a glare. “Be careful not to say it out loud, you’ll die on the grand fairy’s hands.” She noted before she entered the glass barrier. He followed her right after and he looked up.

“So how are we gonna find whatever we need?” And that reminded him. “What do we need, anyway?”

She looked to the left, “We need both archives. The left side archives the people. It’s arranged by birthday. You can find your own life story as told by the fairy in charge.” Then to the right. “While the right side archives the events by month. We need to know what happened in the span of two years. That’s going to be at least forty books.”

“I can get that, you get the individual archives. My wolf sense enhances my strength, you see.”

“Right.” She nonchalantly said as she flapped her wings back out. “Hey, when’s Seungcheol’s birthday?”

“August 8, 1995.”

“Alright.” She flew up, and to the left side to look for the said date while Mingyu ran to the 2014 shelf. He grimaced at the sight of one book. It’s twice as thick as the bible and the handwriting is just plain **_ugly._** He groaned and just took it, with the rest of the books that he needed. Soon, he had books on his hands, waist, and head. He took three trips to get all the books he needed. There was a table in front of the door, so he dropped all the books there. Luda on the other hand, didn’t even take a minute to get what she needed. And on his last trip, she was already done scanning Sojung’s book. He panted and sat down. “Sojung was born in 1995, like Seungcheol, from Manila. In 1997, her family was excommunicated from the Choi clan. In 2010, she and Seokwoo went to their grandmother. Her reason was her mother’s death in this year; Sojung discovered that she became a Banshee by successfully predicting two deaths. In 2011, she was admitted to Busay High. In 2014, she became an honour student. Also in this year, she and Seungcheol dated. The past love fairy adored this couple a lot. In 2015, they broke up; the reason wasn’t stated to any of the fairies. A year ago, Sojung began dating Jeonghan.” She shut the book and put it down. She soon saw Mingyu grimacing. He really started from page one! She passed him the fairy pen. “Use it. It’s like the Find function in MS Word.”

“Do we have keywords?”

“Sojung, Seungcheol.”

“Alrighty.” Mingyu also began his search for details.

“Hey, note the stuffs that we may need.”

“Okay, I got you.”

Luda looked back at Seungcheol’s book, which she opened.

**_He was born and raised in England before coming to Busay at 2001. In 2010, his beloved grandmother died the same year that he entered Busay High as a first-year student. In 2011, he was still dating Bae Joohyun, a beautiful vampire. In 2012, he broke up with Joohyun. In 2014, he began dating Sojung. In 2015, they broke up. In January of 2017, he began dating Jiyeon._ **

Luda processed everything that was written on his book. In all honesty, the basics about their lives don’t interest Luda. She went straight to their “Rumours” page. She opened the same page on Sojung’s book and she began reading both sides and found multiple consistencies. “Mingyu.” She called for her partner.

“Yeah?”

“What can you say about Seungcheol and his father’s relationship?”

Mingyu stopped reading for a bit and answered, “From what I heard, Seungcheol-hyung and his dad had a rocky relationship since his grandmother died. Then it got much worse when he broke up with Sojung. Him dating Jiyeon is like his rebellion.”

Luda nodded and saw something that caught her eye. “He still loves Sojung?”

“Of course he does! You have to have some sort of eye problem if you don’t see it.”

“I don’t.”

“Should we see an ophthalmologist after this?”

“I wouldn’t mind seeing one.” **_It’s probably because I don’t care about love._** She closed the books shut and asked him. “What did you get?”

“The basics. Pretty much everything Dawon told us.”

Luda sighed. It looks like they’re not gonna get anything, but she doesn’t want to give up yet. She flipped Sojung’s book back open and looked at the rumours part once more. But this time, something really did get her eye. She stood up, wide-eyed and shaking. “Mingyu, get me the book from September 2010 and October 2010.”

Mingyu, scared of Luda’s discovery, dashed to the 2010 shelf and grabbed the ninth and tenth books. He ran back quickly and gave her the book and her fairy pen. She quickly wrote Sojung on September, and she read it.

**_Sojung Kim: She first arrived in Soraida Kim’s household with Seokwoo Kim because of her mother’s death. She’s nice and sweet._ **

Then, she wrote Seungcheol.

**_Kassandra Choi: Kassandra’s life force is slowly fading. Her favourite grandson, who’s been living in her house since she got sick, got her fairy blood pie. She loves it so much._ **

She then flipped October 2012’s book soon. She first wrote Seungcheol.

**_Kassandra Choi: Today, she died. She was a wonderful example to vampires. Seungcheol cried so much today, he got his first turning point. He was so mad at his father that we thought he was going to kill him._ **

Afterwards, she wrote Sojung’s name. And two parts were highlighted. October 17 and 18.

**_Soraida Kim: Today, Soraida held on Sojung’s door. She heard her granddaughter crying. She thought it was because of her mother, but she was wrong. Soraida’s getting suspicions that maybe her granddaughter isn’t a human as her son declared. She decided to bring her to the fairy of truth maybe next week._ **

And on October 18,

**_Soraida Kim: Soraida heard the news of their neighbour, Kassandra, and her death. She was of course, sorry, but she saw her granddaughter fainting at the news. And that was when she knew, her granddaughter isn’t human. She’s a Banshee._ **

She flipped back to Seungcheol’s book and saw one of the rumours from 2010.

**_Has heard a Banshee cry before his grandmother’s death._ **

Then she went to his 2015 rumours.

**_He found out that the Banshee who cried before his grandmother’s death was Sojung._ **

She went back to Sojung’s rumours in 2014.

**_Sojung dated Seungcheol to get back at their family._ **

Indeed, now the two of them are confused and dazed. Which one of these really did happen?

* * *

 

Yuna knocked thrice on Yongsun’s, the town’s Fairy of Love, on her apartment door. The two of them always joked around on knocking thrice whenever one would visit the other. Seokmin, on the other hand, noticed that it’s getting colder. He was fine. He was immune to the cold. But the fairy next to him isn’t. He noticed her shivering, so he draped his coat on top of her, almost as if it was the most natural thing he can probably do. It was so natural that Yuna just looked up to meet his eyes and give a small thank you. His coat was much bigger than hers, considering that he’s a guy and all. She put it over her coat and he knocked thrice once more.

“Who is it?”

“Unnie, it’s me.”

The older fairy soon opened up the door for them. She smiled as she saw Yuna, and Yuna smiled the same way. “Yuna-ni!” She beamed and she gave her a big hug. She noticed the familiar draconian next to her colleague as well. “Oh, aren’t you?” She looked at their hands and she found something interesting. “Looks like you got rid of your one-sided love.”

Seokmin scratched his neck and nodded. “Sort of.”

Yongsun gave a nod and she invited both of them in. She served them some biscuits and she sat on the sofa. She needed to get to business. The current grand fairy made a call for a sudden meeting. “So what is it?”

“We need to know about Sojung and Seungcheol.” Yuna said almost immediately. “They have a gold string.”

The moment Yongsun heard their names, she heaved a small sigh and she bit her lower lip. She stood up and faced the shelf. “I trust that you know the basics about their relationship?”

“Yes.”

“Then you should know by now that they threw their love away for their family, right?”

“Yes.”

She faced them now. “The truth is,” She had a sad look on her face. “Neither of them wanted to throw it away.” She smiled at the two sadly. “They both met each other, both yearning for revenge. And then they loved. It was so beautiful back then.”

“But why did they throw it away, if it’s beautiful?” Yuna asked. “I can’t get it. Luda says love comes in many forms. But how can I get pure love from people who threw it away?”

Yongsun realized then. At that moment, the nature of Yuna’s mission. She smiled sadly and said, “Sojung likes pumpkins, and Seungcheol would still give her pumpkins on her birthday. Think of something to involve yourself with in that.” She sat back on the sofa and smiled. “Love is the most beautiful thing in this world. We exist because of love.” She glanced at Seokmin. “Love can come from anything, anytime, anywhere. And that includes them, too. Try to look for the reason why the gold string was attached to them, instead of trying to be nosy about the story.”

 

**_Try, she said._** Yuna sighed as she and Seokmin stepped out of Yongsun’s house. **_How can I try it if the only definition of love that you give me is that it’s the most beautiful thing in the world? How can I say that it’s beautiful, if it was thrown away?_**


	10. Let's Meet Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The concluding chapter of Sojung and Seungcheol's love story. What DID happen in the past? How will our favourite fairy harvest her beloved golden heart if they threw their love away for heir family?

* * *

**_Try to look for the reason why the gold string was attached to them, instead of trying to be nosy about the story_**. Yuna couldn’t help but contemplate about what Yongsun said the night before. Today’s the day directly right after the day they went to meet Yongsun. After Physical Ed today, the pack decided to meet up in Unnatural Brews for the usual reasons such as their favourite food. Since Yuna doesn’t take major classes with her pack-mates, she went first alone. That morning, earlier, a pack got scolded by their homeroom adviser since they took an S-class task out of greed. Yikes. The professor’s sermon was so long that Yuna and her pack weren’t able to fill the pieces in completely. She definitely got some of the gist, like Seungcheol’s dad hating Sojung, and that random fact that Yongsun gave out, that Sojung likes pumpkins but does the pumpkin fact matter, really? She heaved a heavy sigh as she looked up at the ceiling. Their love still confused her to the bones. Why is there a golden string if they already threw their love away for their families? It was confusing to her, but to her predecessor, it seems to fall into place. Everything falls into place for the other, but not to her. **_Maybe she isn’t fit to be the Fairy of Love. Maybe she would have to leave Busay Falls after a semester._**

“Are you out of your mind, though?”

Yuna’s eyes widened when she saw Luda with her food and pulling a seat in front of her. “You’ve been reading my head?”

“Your thoughts were too loud. I was outside and I could hear it.” She sat down in front of Yuna and she took a bite from her veggie burger. “And hey, Yuna. You, by far, are the nosiest fairy I’ve met.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“No, it’s not,” then she took a sip from her Choco Fairy Milk. “But it’s not an insult either. You’re doing fine. I know Arin gave you some trauma issues about this gold heart stuffs but you’ll get used to it, promise.” Yuna turned her head away, which angered Luda a bit. “I’m bad with emotions but I’m trying to cheer you up here.”

“I know, thank you.” Yuna smiled sadly as Dawon also entered the cafe. She sat directly on one of the seats without ordering. “You aren’t eating?”

Dawon shook her head. “I’m not hungry, thank you.” Yuna moved her honeycomb juice near Dawon, so she can drink when she feels like it. “The guys told us to start without them.”

Yuna raised a brow, asking for an answer. “Why?”

“Yugyeom and Mingyu are stuck in **_Controlling Your Inner Self_** class while Seokmin went to meet the other Dragons for Dragon Week.”

“Dragon Week? What’s that?” Yuna asked.

“It’s a week for the dragons, of course! There will be dragon-like activities for one whole week, and it’s going to be held this Monday so they have to prepare for it.” Dawon explained, and Yuna got it easily. “Now, should we talk about what we got?”

Yuna nodded. “What did you guys get?” The two girls both gave her papers. It was their findings, and Yuna also took out hers and Seokmin’s findings about the Woncheol couple. Something caught Yuna’s eye. She took out her yellow pad from her bag and her pen and she began writing everything, so that it would make sense to her, and her pack. Luda and Dawon were both amazed by her speed.

“That’s me when I archive.” Luda commented.

“That’s me when I have 3 minutes left to solve five more problems in math.” Dawon chuckled.

“I hate math.”

“Me too.”

“I hate that our chemistry has math.”

“I hate that our physics has math.”

Luda raised a brow at Dawon. “Physics is **_SUPPOSED_** to have math.”

The Strzyga smiled smugly and scratched her back. “Now, does it?”

It didn’t take Yuna long before she was able to finish summarizing whatever may have happened between Seungcheol and Sojung. She passed her yellow paper to the two, and they were at awe with the timeline she wrote it was detailed properly. “Sojung’s mom, as we all know, was killed by Seungcheol’s dad. Sojung and Seokwoo moved to their grandmother’s after the death and then on the same year, Seungcheol’s grandmother died. The Banshee who predicted Seungcheol’s grandmother’s death was Sojung. A few years after they met in Busay High School and became a couple – “ She stopped for a bit when realization began to hit her. **_“They both met each other, both yearning for revenge. And then they loved. It was so beautiful back then.”_** She remembered what Yongsun said the night before.

“What is it?”

“They both met each other for revenge.” This realization began giving pain to Yuna. “They went to date each other for vengeance but then they found love!” Tears began strolling down Yuna’s face. “Seungcheol and Sojung-unnie both wanted revenge. Seungcheol, perhaps still innocent about banshees, thought that his grandma died because of Sojung-unnie, so he wanted to get revenge, and Sojung-unnie, knowing that Seungcheol’s family tore her family apart, wanted to break Seungcheol. But in the end they fell in love.” **_Yongsun-unnie was right, it WAS beautiful._**

Luda became confused. It was only rumours until last night, but now that they confirmed it, she realized that Unnaturals were much like humans. “Then what happened next?” **_They love hard._** She realized.

“They broke up because of Seungcheol’s father who detested Sojung-unnie so much.” She raised a brow at Dawon. “Why didn’t you note the exact reason?”

“Too disgusting.”

“Wait.” Luda suddenly intervened. “If they broke up already, why is there a gold string between them, as you said?”

“That,” Yuna bit her lower lip. “I’m not sure.”

“We may need that to extract the heart, you know?”

Yuna nodded. “So what do we do now?”

Dawon asked, “Should we kidnap Seokwoo and ask him?”

“Too risky.”

“What about Wheein?”

“She and her boyfriend are leaving Busay for a date tonight.”

“Should we just kidnap the two of them to make up?”

Luda immediately shot the suggestion down. “We would be dead in the discipline office and the three of us will be stripped off our titles.”

Yuna began thinking. “What about an unseen monster attack?”

Luda shrugged. “I wanted to suggest that but I don’t know anyone who can do monster summoning.”

Yuna blinked. “I know one.”

“You know people other than us? That’s new.”

“I sort of saved him during the waterfall incident. Let’s pay him a visit.”

* * *

 

Yuna waited in front of the school’s show choir club, Vocals of Busay with her friends, Luda and Dawon. They were waiting for one of the people Yuna saved, Jaehwan. He’s a demon who, according to Luda’s data, mastered monster summoning despite only having it as an elective for less than two years. She can hear high notes from the hall and loud dancing. She saw Soonyoung inside, too, teaching them choreography for their competition. He may look like a fool outside the choir room, but Yuna thinks he looks hot teaching the others to dance.

**_Did I just say – no – think about it? Snap out of it, Yuna!_ **

“Yeah, snap out of it, your thoughts are too loud, Yuna.” Luda scolded her. “I think I should teach you how to keep your thoughts inside, next time.”

“Right.”

“Soonyoung is single.”

“Shut up.”

Dawon beamed, “You like Soonyoung?!”

“I don’t.”

“Says the fairy who called him hot just now.”

“Shut it, Luda.”

Dawon hushed the two fairies.  “Shh, they’re coming out!” One-by-one, kids from the show choir passed by them, and when Soonyoung saw Yuna, the girls threw glances at the two as the hellhound beamed at the sight of his favourite fairy.

“Hey there, Yuna!”

“H-hey.” Yuna stuttered, unable to hide the embarrassment the girls are giving her.

“Been a while since I last seen you! How’s fairy work?”

“Fine, I guess.” Before it got more awkward, Yuna went straight to the point. “Um, can I please ask for Jaehwan? I have some business with him.”

Soonyoung acted like he was hurt but he quickly moved on when he realized that Yuna wasn’t buying it. “Sorry about that.” He laughed and went back to the choir room. “Yah, Kim Jaehwan! Fairy of Love’s looking for you!” He smiled and waved goodbye. “I got to go, I have Dance Club next!”

“You must be tired. Stop by my office for tea some time.”

He nodded and left, then afterwards, Jaehwan came out. Yuna noted that he’s not very tall. But one time, in PE class, she heard him laugh like an actual maniac. Almost as if his demon form took over him in class. “Ey, it’s Yuna! What can I do for you?”

“Let’s go to my office.”

“Alrighty.” The three girls and Jaehwan went downstairs to Yuna’s office. The pink interior is still pink, and the blue heart she got a few weeks ago is displayed on a vase on her table. Jaehwan sat on the consultation chair while Yuna and the girls sat behind the table. “So, what is it?”

“You need to summon a monster for me.”

“Well, you’re horribly blunt.” Jaehwan remarked.

“We’re just on a rush.” Luda clarified.

“Okay, so what monster do you need? A monster for what occasion, exactly? I can get you a monster who can dance to bars or a monster that’s hot.” He said with a confident smile.

Yuna was about to answer him when they heard a knock on the door, it’s the three boys. Mingyu smiled his usual canine teeth and apologized. “Hey, sorry we’re late; we had to go through full moon simulation.” They entered the room one by one and Luda passed them the summary and a piece of paper. Mingyu stared at the paper then back at Luda. “Luda, what’s this?”

“Go up to Ahin, and ask her to request this.” The paper Luda passed her is a request paper for a fairy job.

“Sorry, but why do you need two actresses?” Yugyeom asked then he pretend-flicked his hair. “I can pass, you know?”

Luda groaned and pushed them out of the room, “Just go!”

“Fine, fine!” Luda slammed the door shut behind them and the boys sighed.

Disappointed, Seokmin heaved a heavy sigh. “Just as we thought that we can get free airconditioning inside Yuna’s office.”

“I thought you’re immune to fire.”

“Not to my surrounding’s heat, though.”

“Alright, let’s just get this request filed so we can finally take our break inside Yuna’s office. Our whole day was **_TIRING_**.” Mingyu added and they began running from the first floor to the second floor.

Back inside the office, when Luda kicked the other boys out, Yuna returned to briefing Jaehwan. “So, we need a monster that looks dangerous. A big one, but not a super-powerful one. The type that we can destroy with fairy dust.”

“A training partner?” Jaehwan asked. “What for?”

“Not a training partner, though.” Dawon clarified. “We want a unprecedented monster attack.”

“Attack who? Did someone mess with your pack already? This early?”

“I’m trying to get a golden heart, Jaehwan.” Finally, Yuna said it. Jaehwan knows the pain the first heart, the one from Minhyun and Jooeun, caused her.

He immediately recognized this strategy. He worked for Yongsun last year, too. “Ah, so you’re doing the save the princess thing?” Yuna and the girls nodded. “There’s a monster called T’ien Kou. It’s big, and scary unless tamed. I have seven of them, if that’s enough for your plan.”

Luda began explaining to Yuna what a T’ien Kou is. “These monsters are really big. They have a physique of a dog, but a capability of a dragon. Fairy dust can usually cause paralysis to them.”

“I’ll just summon one right here, right now.”

“Don’t!” The two girls who knew about T’ien Kou’s, Dawon and Luda, chorused.

“Yuna has potions in this room.” Luda reminded him and he nodded, in agreement. “We’ll take them.” She accepted his offer in behalf of their pack.

“I see. When do you need them?”

“Later.” Yuna suddenly said. “As soon as we get our actress.”

“I need to know of your big picture, so that we can make your plan work, Yuna.” Jaehwan reminded her.

Yuna looked at the two girls and they all nodded, indicating that they should tell Jaehwan of their plans. “Here’s how we’re going to do it. You, your dogs and the actress, which we specified to be a dark-sided unnatural who can control her dark side, will set off to attack Sojung-unnie who’s on her way home by the time Banshee Meeting ends.” She noted as she reminded them of her schedule that she found on Luda’s data. “And here comes actress two, who has a loud voice. The actress, Luda and Mingyu will both come to talk about a dark-sided unnatural who’s lost her sanity and a 7th year Banshee coming to stop her while Seungcheol is around. Eventually, it will end up as Mingyu and Luda’s suspicion of it being Sojung. At that time, if Seungcheol really is in love with Sojung-unnie, then he will probably look for her, and I’ll try my best to extract the heart from then on.”

“That’s a smart plan if it’s executed properly.” Then, they heard three knocks on the door. The boys of their pack entered with a pair. The girl has a weird aura around her. At one glance, she looks incredibly scary. She has brown hair, and she’s really tall, too. She’s also good-looking and her face screams of luxury. The boy with her is also tall. He has grey hair and slanted eyes, but he looks scary, too. Jaehwan recognized the pair. “Oh, Jennie and Zuho!” He immediately went to introduce them. “We’re in the same pack. Jennie’s a demon, like me, and Zuho’s a hellhound.”

Jennie bowed a nod, and Zuho did the same. “We’re here for the job.”

“Right?” Yuna took a glance at their strings. Jennie and Zuho are just friends in her eyes. They don’t have strings attached to them, so she concluded it that way. “So, where did you find them?” She asked the trio who were sitting on the couch in front of the aircon.

“They were submitting a finished task from Youngbin-hyung. They seemed to be up for it.” Seokmin explained.

“We asked for two actresses, right?” Luda asked.

“Park Siyeon is coming in a bit.” Yugyeom added. “The zombie one, not the werewolf.” Yes, zombies also study in this school. However, these zombies are called Talkers, as they’re the types of zombies that has human forms and they can talk properly even in their Zombie form. They just need to be careful of them during the full moon. The door opened and it revealed the said Talker. “Here she is.” She came with her partner, Bae Jinyoung, the merman. They’re both pale and tall, and they had small faces. They’re both popular, too, according to Luda’s notes. Yuna both noted their strings, unconnected. **_Probably just friends._** She noted. “Here they are.”

“I had to bring my partner.” Siyeon apologized and Jinyoung did the same.

Yuna nodded and she began, “Here’s our plan, and we have to execute it properly in order for our goal to be accomplished. This is a B-class mission for Jaehwan, and a C-class mission for the actresses.” She looked at the people they recruited for this task. “A B-class mission for us, too. “ She said as she looked at her own pack. “Let’s do this!”

* * *

 

“Interesting.” Jennie remarked as she sat on top of the tree with Dawon, who’s in her owl form. Dawon’s owl form is a blue owl and her eyes turn yellow on this form.

“What is?” Dawon asked.

Jennie pointed at Yuna who sat on tree in front of them. Yuna is also in her fairy form. Jennie also saw Yuna’s pixie, Arina, sitting on Yuna’s shoulder as Yuna instructs the said pixie. “The love fairy is.” She shrugged and glanced at Dawon, who’s reverted back to her human form now. “I think I’ll be keeping an eye on her.” As she said that, Arina, with her small, cute, pink wings, appeared in front of the two ladies who were discussing just now.

“Hi, Jennie, Dawon!” She greeted the two. “Can you please give me your hands?” She asked. The two opened their fists in front of the pixie and with her magic; two earbuds appeared on their palm. “You can use this to communicate with each other. Shizune, Luda-nim’s pixie, gave the other team the same earbuds so we can talk to one another. Let’s be safe!”

The two nodded and Dawon smiled as the both inserted the earbuds in their ears. Arina returned to Yuna, who’s now joined by Seokmin on the tree. “I gave it to them, Yuna-nim.”

“Thank you, Arina. I’m always grateful with your assistance.” Arina bowed and returned to Yuna’s bag. She glanced at Seokmin, who’s fondling with the earbud. It wasn’t the usual earbuds that’s free when you buy smartphones, it was the earbud that isn’t connected to a wire, which is maybe why Seokmin is confused about. She took the earbud from his hands and she placed it in his ear. “There you go.”

He smiled, saying, “Thank you.” He couldn’t help but blush at the contact but he shook it off. They have more important things to do, so he decided to leave his growing fondess alone for now. “Can you do a recap of the plan for me?”

She rolled her eyes. “Were you not listening?”

“Your aircon is strong, I fell asleep.”

She sighed at his reason and she began explaining him the mechanics of her task. “It’s like a forced ‘save-the-princess’ task. We split into three teams. _Jaehwan, Jennie, Zuho, you and I,_ we’re team 1. We’re the **_Action Team._** Jaehwan will summon the monster we need,” She said, pointing at the demon who just finished writing a magic circle in a letter-sized bond paper. “Jennie will act in her demon form and control the monster.” She added, pointing at the female demon who’s also getting ready to change forms. “You and Zuho will look after Jennie, if in she loses control over her demon form.” She then pointed at the grey-haired hellhound who joined Jennie and began giving her a pep talk. “I’m going to be extracting the heart. Mingyu, _Luda, Mingyu and Siyeon_ are team 2. They’re the **_Talk Team._** They’re going to make Seungcheol go to the forest to save Sojung.” Then, she finally pointed at Dawon. “Then _Dawon, Jinyoung and Yugyeom_ are in team 3. They’re the **_Comm Team._** They’re supposed to provide back-up in case things go wrong, which I hope doesn’t happen, by the way.”

He smiled a reassuring smile. “Alright, I got you, cap.”

“You’re the leader of this pack, though?” She asked. “Right?”

He nodded. “I’m the leader but I don’t like making hierarchies in packs, so my leader role is just a press release.”

*beep* Yuna and Seokmin’s earbuds both made that sound. Yuna pressed hers, and when she saw that Seokmin’s having trouble with his again, she pressed it for him, too. “Hello?” She called.

Jinyoung, who’s waiting by the school’s exit to the forest, began talking. “Sojung-noona just passed by the exit.”

“Alright. Thank you, Jinyoung.” Dawon replied through the earbud, then her wings came out from her back. She flew away to look for Sojung. Yuna also flew up, to avoid being seen. She flew high enough to see Sojung, about 20 trees away from Jennie and Jaehwan’s current position. She was soon joined by Dawon.

“Alright, let’s get **_Act I_** started.” Yuna instructed, and the others, from their positions, gave off a yes or a nod. “ ** _Act I_** will work like this. Jennie will appear on her demon form in front of Sojung and she will engage her in battle with Jaehwan’s monsters.” Yuna flew off, and Dawon did the same, acting as the lookouts.

Meanwhile, back down on the ground, an unknowing Sojung walked calmly through the forest, aka, the safest and fastest way to get home, not forgetting to observe her surroundings. It didn’t take long before Jennie appeared in front of her. Sojung greeted the younger, who once lived in her grandmother’s boarding house. “Hi, Jennie!” She smiled widely, but the smile disappeared immediately when she saw the latter’s red eyes and purple skin. This sent shivers through Sojung’s spine.

She became afraid. “Hey.” Jennie replied. She sent a signal to Jaehwan – a signal that they should commence the plan. Jennie forcibly turned her skin purple and her brown eyes red. Devil’s wings appeared on her back, a tail appeared by her bum. “How are you, you little b*tch?”

“Jennie, I don’t want to fight you, let’s talk this out.” But deep inside Sojung, she’s already preparing to pull out her sword from her side.

She looked down at Sojung and licked her lips. “Too late.” Jennie’s hands pointed at the two magic circles in front of her and chanted, **_“China’s feared lions, show thyself!”_** As if Jennie summoned them, two T’ien Chous appeared on the circles. Ferocious and angry. Sojung pulled out a sword and formed a defensive stance. She began thinking on how to bring Jennie back to her human form without hurting her too much.

Yuna watched over the impending battle and satisfied, she connected her communication device to Luda and Mingyu. “Act I is in place. Let’s bring Act II.” Dawon flew from the forest to the campus, where the basketball team just finished their practice. Seungcheol can be seen talking with Joshua, with Mingyu, Siyeon and Luda overlooking at them. “ ** _Act II will have Dawon meeting Siyeon, Mingyu and Luda and informing them about Jennie and Sojung’s fight.”_**

Dawon landed next to the trio and she said, “Hey, Jennie and Sojung-unnie are fighting in the forest!”

Siyeon, with her extra-loud voice, asked, “Eh?! Sojung-unnie and Jennie-unnie are fighting?!” Jinyoung, who was on the tree, overseeing the whole scene, noted that Seungcheol’s attention was caught the moment he heard Sojung’s name. He stopped from walking away.

“A fight? That’s interesting.” Luda noted.

“Why would they fight, though?” Mingyu asked Dawon.

“Jennie lost it! She’s going rampage on her demon form!” She’s acting her best, and it looks genuine, even in Seungcheol’s eyes, who’s now shaking, unsure what to do. “Quick, let’s go and watch!”

“So you want us to watch a demon going rampage and a banshee fighting to death?! No way!” Siyeon exclaimed, now, her voice was so loud, Seungcheol heard it clearly and he finally decided to approach their group.

“What’s going on?!”

Mingyu glanced at his hyung and frowned. “Soj—jdis” He cas cut off with Siyeon’s hand, making him stop speaking.

“Uh, nothing, Seungcheol-oppa.” She denied.

“I heard everything already, so tell me, which part of the forest are they fighting in?” He asked firmly. The kids were hesitating, and he was panicking. “Quick!”

“By the exit.” Dawon simply answered, and Seungcheol wasted no time in talking and left off on his own. When his figure disappeared, the kids heaved a heavy sigh, and Luda clicked her earbud.

“Hey, Yuna, Act II, accomplished.”

Yuna sighed and nodded. “Thank you.” **_Now, for Act III._** She flew close to the battlefield and noticed that despite fighting with two huge monsters, Sojung is doing well, holding on her own.

“Why are you doing this, Jennie?!” Frustrated, she asked the younger girl as she slashed the monster in half, but she failed to destroy the monster completely.

“I don’t know!” An innocent Jennie answered. “Maybe because it’s fuuuuuuuun?!” Then a crazy Jennie came back.

**_This is bad, at this point, I might get killed!_** Sojung remarked by herself. “Jennie, let’s talk this out!”

“What talk!?” She laughed a maniac laugh, scaring the hell out of the banshee. “I’m done talking! Talking is so 80’s!”

“ENOUGH!” The moment Seungcheol entered the battlefield, the aura of the area changed. It was the aura of love, in Yuna’s senses. The gold sting between them just tightened, almost ready for extraction. She just needs a little more push. He squeezed the banshee’s shoulder and he asked, “Are you okay?”

“I am,” Then she shot him a glare. “But I’m not a maiden of saving.” She rushed to the side and found the monster’s weakness – its magic circle. Jaehwan, who’s watching from the sky, in his demon form, is amazed at Sojung’s knowledge as she slid across the magic circle to remove it, destroying one of the monsters.

“I know.” He agreed. He pulled out his sword. “That’s why I’m here to back you up.”

“No thank you.”

“I insist.”

“Quit the love drabbles.” Her eyes turned purple, which startled Zuho. **_No way._** He told himself as he blinked, hoping that the purple in her eyes is just some sort of glitch. “I’m tired of this already!” Her eyes and face fumed, and Zuho realized that it **_wasn’t a glitch._** Her skin is turning red, a sign of another demon coming into her body. Jennie isn’t being controlled by her own mind now – someone else is manipulating her. With her magic, she reformed the ground, throwing rocks and blocks at the pair, with Seungcheol heavily defending Sojung.

Zuho immediately pressed his communication device. “Jaehwan, bring back the monster. Someone else is pulling Jennie’s strings!”

Yuna became shocked and she rushed to their aid,

 

Well, almost.

Would she rather save them and not get a heart, or let them get hurt but get a heart? She faced with the same decision she had when she faced Minhyun and Jooeun.

 

 

“Do it.” She heard Jaehwan call her out. “For god’s sake, Yuna, do it!” He yelled. “Demons regenerate! Fairy glitter can heal Sojung and Seungcheol. It’s a win-win situation for you. Just, do it!” He cried out. “I can’t take seeing you lose two hearts already.” She looked over at him and he gave her a nod. “Do it.”

She nodded back and rushed back up, and she decided to begin for her Act III. “Seokmin,” She called him out.

“Yes?”

“Find whoever’s pulling the strings with Jennie.”

“On it.” Seokmin immediately left the battlefield and began looking for the perpetrator.

Yuna, then, connected her device with Jaehwan’s. “Jaehwan, can you do one last attack?”

“Thought you’d never ask!” Jaehwan controlled the monster to attack Sojung, and almost as if it was predicted, the monster missed Sojung,

 

 

And hit Seungcheol. His arm bled and Sojung was left wide-eyed. Jaehwan pulled Jennie out at Sojung was left pre-occupied with Seungcheol falling on her arms. His arm is slashed, and it looks bad enough to the point that it might come off. Tear finally fell from her eyes as she asked, “What did you just do, you stupid—“ She choked. “What the hell did you just do?”

He wiped the tear off her face and he smiled. “It’s nice seeing you cry about me.”

 

It was quiet. Her sniffs can be heard through the forest, and she can hear his panting. “I think I should call for help.”

Before she could leave, he pulled her wrist and shook his head. “Stay. Someone pulled Jennie out, someone would probably come here and heal me, I’ll be alright.” At this time, Yuna’s already on the tree’s branch, looking over the two who were holding one another. “Sojung.”

“What?”

“Are you still mad about the past?”

“To be honest, I’m madder about you sleeping with an angel than the two of us breaking up.” She shrugged. “Can’t believe you risked your life to just sleep with one.”

He smiled a little. “You’re really cute.” He held her hand. “If I ever die here –“

“You’re not. Do I look like I’m wailing over you?” **_Lies._** Sojung told herself. She was dying inside. She’s dying seeing him bleed.

“If I die here, I want to tell you **_I love you.”_** He sincerely confessed. That marked the beginning of the string’s transformation. It’s turning to its heart form as he speaks. “I want to tell you that I always have.” Yuna’s fist soon opened, as the heart successfully crystallized and moved to her hands. “And I want you to know that I always will.” And it did.

 

Her first heart.

On her palm.

She kept it close to her heart and placed it safely in her bag. She was about to fly to drop fairy glitter, but Sojung had something to say. “I do, too.” She confessed. “But, not now, Cheol. We’re both seeing other people.”

“I know.”

“If by the time we’re in 12th year and single, what if we give it another shot?” She smiled at him. “I would want to, in that time.”

He softly nodded and cupped her cheek. “Let’s do that.”

This warmed Yuna’s heart so much. **_Turns out that even if you throw love away, it’s still defined as love. The strings, indeed, will find its way._** She saw their red string becoming stronger than ever, and their blue strings loosening. Maybe it’ll work out for them, this time. She flew on top of them, shocking Sojung, and she sprinkled fairy glitter at Seungcheol’s wounded arm. “Yuna!” Sojung exclaimed.

Quickly, Seungcheol’s wound healed, and he smiled at the fairy. “Thank you, fairy.”

“Get up, let’s bring you home.” Sojung commanded him and pulled him up. He glanced and smiled at Yuna as she held Seungcheol’s arm to assist him. “Thanks, Yuna.”

Yuna smiled back. “No, thank you.”

“I’ll bring him home for now.”

“Alright.” Yuna waved at them goodbye and when they disappeared to the forest, she heaved a heavy sigh of relief. She looked at the heart in her bag, and she was joined by the team.

“Where is it?” Siyeon asked, curious and excited.

“Tada!” Yuna showed it off to the team, and they clapped in unison. “Thank you, everyone!”

Luda pat Dawon’s shoulder and she did the same with Mingyu, making the werewolf blush. Yugyeom and Jinyoung gave each other a high-five, and the now-recovered Jennie and Zuho cheered. Siyeon and Jaehwan both exchanged happy smiles, until Mingyu noticed someone missing. “Wait, where is Seokmin?”

Yuna blinked. She forgot that she asked him to look for the person behind the strings. And as if it was on cue, a body dropped from the sky –

 

 

Seokmin’s.

* * *

 


	11. Dinners

 

* * *

 The team rushed to catch Seokmin’s falling body. They laid him down on the grass and saw his wounds. He was scarred on the wrist, and his arm is bleeding, same with his legs. “Hey, what happened?” Yuna asked as she began sprinkling fairy dust on his wounds. He yelped in pain as the fairy dust began to sting on his arm. “Sorry, did that hurt?”

Luda rolled her eyes. “Of course it is, Yuna. We all know that Fairy magic can cure a Draconian, but it’s gonna take a lot more than just stinging for him.”

Seokmin yelped once more. “Hey, it hurts!”

Mingyu held him down. “Keep it down, will you? You’re heavy!”

Seokmin glared at his friend. “You should try this, alright? Try this treatment.”

“I’d love to! I love fairy dust!” Mingyu retorted.

“Just shut up.” Luda shot Mingyu a glare and shot one at Seokmin, too. “Both of you.” She began sprinkling fairy dust on his leg wounds, too. “Stop whining about it, this is the easiest way to get rid of your damned wounds.”

“Actually, it’s not.” Dawon moved to the other side and softly pushed Zuho away. She knelt on Seokmin’s side and she pulled a knife from her bag, then she slit her wrist. She bit her lower lip to not let a pained moan escape from her mouth.

“Hey!” Yugyeom called her out. “Blood loss is bad for you.” He complained. “We know that Strzygas only have 50% of what regular Unnaturals have, if you lose more than what should remain for you to stay alive—“

“I’ll be fine, Yugyeom, please.” She smiled a reassuring smile, and she squeezed her wrist a bit more. Seokmin definitely felt his wounds healing, slowly but surely. However, it didn’t take long before she felt herself weakening out of blood loss. “Ow.” She moaned. “How many wounds does he still have?”

“Four more. Can your blood take it?” Yuna asked with worry in her eyes.

“I don’t think my blood can hold on for more than another wound.” She said as she gulped. “I might have to close my wound soon. I’m sorry.” Seokmin pushed off her arm with his leg. Flustered, she asked, “But it’s not yet done!”

“We can’t have another patient in this area, Dawon.” Seokmin smiled him a reassuring smile, the same smile Dawon gave the rest of them when she started to slit her wrist for him. “I’ll be alright; I’ll endure the fairy dust. Please don’t hurt yourself.” He moaned another moan of pain. “Can’t it get a little easier for me?”

Luda shook her head. “It doesn’t, and it won’t, little lamebrain.”

 “Lamebrain? What does that mean?” Seokmin looked up at Mingyu.

The latter shrugged. “How would I know? Luda has some sort of dictionary in her head whenever she wants to curse us, though?” He let out another sigh. “So that probably means stupid, dumb or any of its synonyms.”

“Not helping my recovery, Mingyu and Luda.”

Just then, Jennie thought of something. “Byullie-unnie is studying Strzyga Medicine. I think she can help Seokmin without losing much blood.” She looked at her watch. “She should be at home by now.”

Yugyeom changed to his werewolf form and the girls pulled Seokmin to his back. Mingyu rode on Yugyeom’s back and looked at Jaehwan’s pack. “You guys should go on ahead. We’ll take it from here. I heard from Seungkwan that Jaehwan is needed back in Vocals.” He looked over at Siyeon and Jinyoung. “And your packmates are looking for you. Looks like they took a job somewhere.”

“We’ll bring you to Byullie unnie, first.” Jennie spoke as she brought out her wings once more. Zuho transformed into his hound form, and Dawon transformed to her bird form. “Follow me!”

Yuna and Luda flew up, and smiled at the three who will make their leave. “Thank you, I’ll give some gifts after we cure Seokmin!”

Jinyoung nodded. “Noona, I don’t like fairy blood!”

Siyeon nodded at Jinyoung’s statement. “I don’t, too!”

“I like fairy blood!” Yuna just rolled her eyes and chuckled at Jaehwan’s bold statement.

“Noted!” And with that, Yuna and her pack dashed off to follow Jennie and find this **_Byullie-unnie._**

* * *

 

Byullie’s dorm is not far from the school. Dawon’s a fellow Strzyga but she hasn’t met this person before. She’s one of the older Strzygas, and Dawon isn’t exactly close to seniors since the Minhyun issue. Yuna glanced at Dawon who seems to be pacing nervously as the boys and Jennie bring Seokmin inside the dorm. “Hey, what’s wrong?” Yuna asked. Luda also noticed Dawon’s uneasiness.

But the girl just shook it off. “It’s nothing, really.” She shrugged then opened the door, and she came in first. The two fairies shot a glance of understanding.

“I think Dawon is more than just an unopened book, is she not?” Luda asked Yuna and Yuna gave her a nod of agreement.

“We may be just seeing the tip of the iceberg here.  I suspect that she’s more than just what we see.”

“I agree.” The two entered the dormitory. The dorm’s exterior is a tall, black, structure with one door and big windows. It has its name, “ _Dormitorique”_ on the topmost of the building. When they came inside, the grand lobby faced them. Maintaining the black theme of the structure, the chairs, the desk and the chandelier is also black. From the lobby, the canteen can be seen at the right side and the stairs that probably lead to the rooms are on the left side. There are a few kids in the lobby, some, Yuna can’t really recall. She rushed to Seokmin’s side and looked at his wounds. Of course, Dawon’s blood closed off one wound, but not all of them. He has a total of seven wounds. Dawon closed off one, Yuna and Luda also closed off one each, the hard way. So he still has four wounds. And these four are the deepest/

“If we give him fairy dust, he might die with pain.” Yuna explained. “Fairy dust is easy healing for everyone except Draconians, much like any other fairy perks.” She looked for Jennie. “Where’s Jennie?” She asked Zuho.

He answered, “She came up to call Byullie-noona.” She raised a brow, and he seems to understand her question easily. “She lives here.”

“And you?”

“I live with my parents.”

Yuna blinked. **_Oh no._** She hurriedly took her phone from her bag and saw what she expected --- Five missed calls from Mom. It’s almost six in the evening and her Dad’s coming home tonight! She excused herself from her friends and dialled her mom, just to not let her fuming get worse. And just as she expected, it was already in heat when her mom picked up the phone on its second ring.

“CHOI YUNA WHERE ARE YOU?!”

“Mom, hi!” She shyly answered. “I’m in Dormitorique.”

She heard her mom let out an “EH?” but she soon asked, “Why?” She noted that her mom calmed down for a bit, and it’s good that she did. “Aren’t you coming home for dinner?”

“I am. What’s for dinner?”

“Your fairy father is coming home so I might cook fairy cow skewers.”

“Okay, I will. Just in a bit. My draconian partner got hurt when we were in a job.”

She heard her mom laugh out loud through the phone. “Oh, what, did you try curing him with fairy dust?”

“Sort of.”

“Yuna, my love, we draconians don’t find fairy dust beneficial. Did you bring him to the hospital?”

Yuna shook her head. “Not really, it’s too far away, and he has seven wounds so we brought him to a Strzyga Med major.”

“Ah, that’s good. See you at dinner, sweetie!”

“Yeah, bye.” She ended the call and recalled what her mother said. Her mother is a Draconian but her father is a fairy. According to the laws of nature, any draconian who marries a fairy would have to give up her child’s status as a draconian, making the child completely a fairy, thus, Yuna’s the fairy, and all of her siblings are fairies. When the call ended, she saw Jennie with a grey-haired girl. She’s no taller that Jennie, and she has bangs. Her striking grey eyes are appalling and intimidating. Mingyu and Yugyeom even have their two hands together.

Dawon nudged Yuna. “So she’s Byullie-unnie.”

Yuna raised a brow. “You’re both Strzyga but you don’t know her?”

Dawon shook her head. “I don’t come close to seniors. And there are lots of strzygas in this school. We come in second in the school’s populations after Hybrids.”

“Hybrids are not that many.”

“I think you’re thinking about the werewolf-vamp hybrids, but they’re not the only hybrids that exist in this school.” Dawon explained. “There are kitsune-strzygas and so on and so forth, too.”

Yuna nodded in understanding and she stared at Byullie. “Who’s his partner?” She asked the pack and Yuna raised her hand. “Let’s go and move him to the clinic.” Yugyeom and Mingyu went on ahead and helped Seokmin to move to the clinic, which is across the canteen. The clinic looks similar to their school clinic. The usual white interior and the white beds. “So, what happened to him?” Byullie put on her white coat from the hanger and her glasses.

“We don’t know. He just fell from the sky when we asked him to search for the person who controlled Jennie on the task.” Yuna explained.

Byullie began examining his wounds. She first looked at his wounds on his arms. “His three wounds on the arm are closed up nicely.” She pointed at Luda and Yuna’s works. “These two are closed off by fairies,” Then she pointed at the one Dawon closed. “This is a strzyga’s.” She blinked. “There’s a strzyga here?” Dawon raised her arm shyly and Byullie nodded. “I’ve seen you around, but this may be my first time meeting you.” She diverted her attention back on Seokmin’s wound. She touched the largest on his stomach. She unbuttoned his polo and he yelped in pain. “Stay still.”

“I’ll try.”

She groaned at the sight of his wound. “It’s big, and it’s problematic.” She went to one of the cabinets and took a bottle of –

 

“Is that blood?” Yuna asked.

Byullie nodded. “We have some of these just in case.” She opened the bottle and started dripping some on his wound.

“Ouch.” He yelped in pain.

“That’s part fairy glitter-part strzyga blood. It’s gonna make the closing of the wound faster but it’s gonna hurt.” She went to his leg wounds and neck wound. “And it’s gonna hurt over here, too.” She dripped more on the leg wounds and the neck wound. Yuna turned her eyes away as Seokmin yelled some more. She couldn’t take his screaming. But true enough, it wasn’t slow, it was fast. His healing ended so quickly, that Byullie helped her sit as he closed off his polo. “You okay now?” She smiled at him.

He nodded, like the proper man he is. “Yes, I am. Thank you.”

The pack heaved a sigh of relief and Luda went on and squeezed his arm. “You did well, holding on like that.”

The two boys gave him a thumbs-up while Yuna just smiled beautifully at him. He smiled at her back and Zuho and Jennie both gave him a pat on the back. Byullie reminded them, “Shouldn’t you be at the Draconian dinner by seven? I saw Jane Sung leaving with Jung Chanwoo about thirty minutes ago.” Byullie reminded him, while referring to two other Draconians, Jiyeon and Chanwoo.

Seokmin mentally facepalmed. “I should go.” He smiled at Byullie. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Run along, children.” Byullie dismissed the pack and they all said their goodbyes. It’s dinner night tonight, a Saturday. This means families are all home, and everyone’s having dinner with someone.

 

 

And Yuna has to rush home or else her Dragon of a mother will make sure that her tongue doesn’t survive anything.

* * *

 

“Here is your favoured food, ya’ fairies.” Yuna’s mother said as she served fairy cow skewers on the table. Her mom had a hot sauce with her as she sat on her seat next to her father. “Yuna, call your sibs.”

Yuna frowned. “Can’t they come down on their own?”

“Just call them, they’re probably playing overwatch or something.”

Yuna sighed. “YOO SEONHO! CHOI LUCY! BOTH OF YOU COME DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!”

Yuna’s younger siblings dashed to the dining room – the eldest is home. “What’s wrong with you, noona?” Seonho, Yuna’s dashing younger brother complained. Honestly, he’s handsome. Even older girls from Busay find him handsome – and he isn’t even in high school. “You went loud there.”

“Seonho has a point.” Lucy, the youngest and Seonho’s twin sister complained. “You could’ve called us nicely!”

“And what, call you babies? Ew. Sit.”

Yuna’s father chuckled and commented, “Tough love, is it?”

Yuna just rolled her eyes on her dad’s remark. “Dad!” Looking at her family, she suddenly felt sad. Sojung must’ve felt sad whenever she sees other families. At that time, maybe Yuna understood why Sojung wanted revenge.

“Yura, you have chilli sauce on your chin.” Yuna’s father suddenly said, making her mom burst out of laughter. “But then again, what’s new?”

“Shut it, Samuel.”

Yuna smiled. She understands Sojung.

* * *

 

Meanwhile, our favourite Draconian thought he was gonna miss the Draconian dinner. That dinner that would be their opening for the Dragon Week. They prepared for this, and they want it to work in the best way. For some reason, though, their leader, Dongho, asked them to meet tonight. The dinner was supposed to be held tomorrow, but something is poking him.

When Seokmin got to the venue, in his usual formal attire, and he came to the table reserved under Dongho, of course. When he came to the table, he sat on the seat next to Jane and Jacob. They’re his fellow Draconians in the same year. He isn’t the last to arrive, though. Good for him, since he wouldn’t be getting needless scolding from Dongho. There are still two members missing from the Draconian Council – the heads of the entire Draconian population in Busay High School. There are nine members of the Draconian Council, and it includes Dongho, Seokmin, and everyone else in the meeting. Dongho is the chairman of the council. “Seokmin, order now.”

Seokmin nodded and Jane passed him the menu. “What did you get?” He asked her.

“Spicy pesto pasta.” Jane is pretty, in Seokmin’s opinion. Her hair is coloured black with streaks of blue and pink. She’s on the tall side, too, making it a plus point for her. One thing that he noticed about she is similar to Luda, they make their smiles limited, and her stare is cold.

“And you?” He asked Jacob, this time.

“Spicy Spaghetti. Dongho-hyung brought us to Italian tonight.” Jacob, on the other hand, has a wide smile on his face and his brown hair compliments him a lot.

Seokmin raised his arm to call a waiter. When the waiter arrived, he kept his order simple. “Spicy shrimp marinara and spicy pepper juice,”

The waiter took Seokmin’s order and left the table. “Where have you been, hyung? It’s not like you to come later than me?” One of the younger members, Chanwoo, asked. He’s very tall, considering that he’s in the younger side of the council. He has circle eyes, and his eyesight looks bad, so he’s wearing round-rimmed glasses. He has brown hair and he’s pale, too.

“I was on a job with my pack, so I came out late.”

“I heard you joined a pack with two fairies.” Yoo Taeyang, the blue-haired Draconian smirked with obvious shade. Taeyang is also on the tall side and in the same batch as Seokmin. They aren’t in good terms, from the tension that everyone can at least feel. “The new fairy in our class.”

Seokmin shot him a glare, losing the properness he had earlier on. “Shut it, Chaeyeonatic.”

Jacob kept his mouth shut from laughing and Dongho clapped in amazement. “The clapbacks!”

Jimin, one of the members, also smiled, “I like this friendly rivalry.” He’s blonde and he has a sweet-looking face. “Right?”

Chanwoo laughed out loud. “It’s not even friendly, hyung!”

“Sorry we’re late!” one of the last members, Yein, the black-haired Draconian grinned as she sat next to Chanwoo. “I had to do Chanwoo’s paperwork.” She had these beautiful monolids and she’s astoundingly pretty, too. But like Chanwoo, her eyesight seems to be bad, so she’s also wearing a pair of specs.

The other last one, Dayoung, who has big, large eyes and blonde hair, sat next to Yein. “Yep, I had to do pack jobs, sorry I’m late.”

“It’s alright; call the waiter to get your orders.” When the two girls asked for their orders, Dongho decided to leave out the big news until after dinner. Once the last one that would finish, which is Jimin, is actually finished eating, he cleared his throat before starting to speak. “I’m gonna be honest here.”

Everyone’s eyes went to their leader, who suddenly turned serious. “Is everything alright, Dongho-oppa?” Yein asked.

“Did you and Wheein-unnie break up? I heard you two were supposed to go on a date on HumanTown today.” Jane asked seriously.

“I was **_supposed_** to take my girlfriend out on a date but then this damned situation happened.” He sighed. “And this damned situation is, well, **_the first full moon is gonna happen on our week. OUR Dragon Week.”_** Everyone in the table became flustered when they heard it. Yup, they heard it right. The cursed full moon, where everyone, including those who can’t really use their other forms, turn exactly to their other forms. Fairies who has human forms bring out their wings without their will, werewolves who have human forms also turn to actual wolves, vampires turn to their vampire forms, and they can’t change back until the sun comes up on the next day. This also includes demons who can’t control themselves and zombies who can’t do the same – total nightmare for those who can control theirs. “It’s this Saturday. We are so freaking doomed if Zombies or someone else go loose on that day, ya’ll know that, right?” He glanced over at Seokmin. “It’s on the Dragon Parade, so we most especially can’t have someone go loco on that day. I’ll be coordinating with Luda for this, so she’ll keep you in touch.” He glanced over at Chanwoo. “Chanwoo, your werewolf friend, last full moon,”

Chanwoo gulped and nodded. “Me and Eunbi will try our best to keep him in control, hyung.”

Dongho smiled. “Thank you. Let’s hope for a good-ass Dragon Week. Please.”

 

* * *

 


	12. All for 5K Kiaos!

It was the Monday morning after the weekend. Yuna and her friends, with the noticeable absence of Seokmin, are chatting on their seats. Seokmin has to prepare for the programme. It’s the start of the Dragon week, that one week where everything is dragon-y and everyone felt it, too. The interiors of the school had dragon-like decorations, and the field has a big stage that’s also decorated with dragons. Around the stage are food stalls – although Yuna doesn’t know what are sold down there. She’s seen Sojung with Wheein today, which probably means that Dongho is too busy to the point that he didn’t meet with his girlfriend. Luda is also running late today. She heard that her Fairy mother is in town, so she had to meet her at the bus terminal. So it’s just her, Mingyu, Yugyeom and Dawon in their pack today. They were talking about the typical things. Homeworks, weird gossips, food and what they did in the weekend. Mingyu attended a handicraft seminar in a nearby human town below the waterfalls, Yugyeom brawled with a walker, and Dawon attended a career expo during the weekend. Yuna had her weekend pretty good. Her father came home, so they went to the mall together. Her two siblings were mini-pains though, since they ran off everywhere.

The reason why her father came home was quite obvious, though. This week, the full moon is going to take place. Her father, Samuel, is the Governor of Knowledge. He’s the leader of the Knowledge Fairies in the entire region. In his case, the entire region of Albay. He oversees fairies from Busay, Mayon, Tabaco and Legazpi, so he has to be in the capital all the time. Their region’s capital is in Legazpi, one of the biggest Unnatural Cities. She somehow wants to be like her father, but in the Love league. She likes dealing with love, although she doesn’t know how to, exactly.

“Oh, did you hear?” Mingyu began. “I heard this when I was doing some archiving with Luda yesterday.”

Yuna raised a brow. “Who is it about?”

“Yeo Hwanwoong, do you guys know that kid?” Mingyu asked. “I overheard from a younger kid that he packed with **_The Trio.”_**

Yuna, curious, asked. “The Trio? Who are they?”

“They’re like, the strongest fourth year kids. They’re childhood friends. They’re composed of Jung Chanwoo, a Draconian, Hwang Eunbi, a Strigoi and Moon Bin, a werewolf, like me and Yugyeom.” Mingyu explained. “And the thing is, everyone who makes a pack with The Trio would always prevail in the pack games.”

Alright, this got Yuna confused. “What now? Pack games?”

Mingyu sighed. “Alright, listen closely. Every time there’s a week like this, Dragon Week, Fairy Week, whoever’s week, there’s always a **_Pack Games_** by Saturday. It’s a class battle. One pack from a class would represent and play in these games. It’s usually a tactical game with numerous obstacles. It changes every year, and it’s made to fit the theme.”

“And this Trio, they always win it?”

Mingyu shook his head. “Not **_Win_** as in Win like champion. They’re never out of the top 5 classes.”

Yuna nodded in understanding. “Hwanwoong is in my potions class and he’s good.”

“Not to mention that they packed up with their packmates last year, Juyeon, the half angel-mermaid hybrid and that kitsune, Jang Yeeun.” Dawon sighed. “Looks like whoever’s up with them is gonna have to train hard.

“Speaking of training.” Luda suddenly entered the conversation. Sneaky, but smart. “I got us a job.”

Yuna raised a brow. “What job?”

“We’re going to be watching over the packs during the training period and during the matches.”

Dawon asked, “Watch over?”

“We all know that the full moon is happening this Saturday.” Luda began. Yuna noticed that Luda put down the paper for them to see. “And to make sure that no one gets hurt, Dongho-ssi asked us to oversee the etire process. Look at the chart.” She passed them copies of a heirarchy chart -- or in this case, the chart that tells who’s battling who. “The preliminary games will start on Friday morning. The packs have been individually training for a week now, and they will continue training until Thursday, but this time, we’re coming there to oversee them and record their statistics.” This time, Luda herself raised a brow. “For probability purposes? I don’t get them.” She took the paper back and explained some more. “Well, they ranked this as A-class and we’ll be getting 5 thousand kiao each once we finish this task—“

Well that bought almost everyone in their pack. “No kidding?” Even Yuna, who doesn’t care about money all the time, asked. “As in, 5K?!”

“Yep, we just observe and make sure no one goes loco for the rest of the week.” She  nonchalantly concluded. “Seokmin will be there to meet us.”

“I have a question, though?” Yuna caught everyone’s attention. “Who’s playing for our class?”

“Yoo Taeyang’s pack.” Yugyeom answered simply. “His group is strong, so there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Yuna looked around, looking for the same classmate, but she concluded that he may be out for practice now. “So where are they?”

“They’re training in the assembly hall. Let’s go, Seokmin will teach us to do our job.” Luda led the pack out, and this is a signal that their second job just began.

* * *

 

When they got to the assembly hall, everything seems to be a whole mess. Well, not super-mess, but an organized mess. There are barriers that serve as the workplaces (or training areas) per pack, but nobody seems to have started training yet. Some of them are familiar to Yuna. Seungcheol is playing, so are the Kim cousins, but on different packs. She saw most of the fairies, too. Seems like all of them are playing – only on different sides. And one of the things that fascinated her is the **strings.** This is the first time she’s seen **_powerful strings._** Strings that are strongly connected – most likely because there are seniors present. The graduating seniors, well, Yuna can feel their strong aura. According to the rules, the graduating seniors, since they can graduate in either Year 12 or Year 11, depending on their majors, can only form two packs to join the battles. This goes the same for the juniors, those who are in Year 10 and 9. The rest, though, have to make four packs per year level, since there are four classes per level.

As Yuna was looking at the strings, one pair caught her attention. From the Juniors’ side was Byullie-unnie. The unnie who cured Seokmin. Maybe because she was so pre-occupied about her partner, she didn’t notice the strzyga’s strings. And her red string is a string binded by a wedding ring with one of her pack-mates. The man’s the basketball player. Shook, Yuna nudged Luda. “Luda, is Byullie-unnie married?”

Luda nodded. “I’m surprised you only asked now.” Yuna gave out a peace sign. “Just because you got your first heart doesn’t mean that you would be slacking, Yuna.”

“I know, I know.”

“Byullie-unnie is indeed, married. She has a kid, too.”

Yuna raised a brow. “Are we allowed to have kids in High School?”

“Kids from Year 1 to Year 8 aren’t allowed to have kids, but they are. Unnatural schools are mixtures of collegiate and high school levels. We spend Year 1 to Year 7 as ‘high schoolers’ and then we spend our 8th-12th years taking up majors. Humans call it college, but the school does that so we can still operate in the human world. By the time that we’re in 8th year, we’re already 23 years old, and we can get married on that age.” Luda explained to Yuna easily, that the other fairy seems to have gotten it easily. Luda rolled her eyes. “Are you **_really_** a student here?”

Yuna just smiled smugly and looked back at Byullie. Yuna found her blue string strange. She’s married but a blue string still exists. But then again, she shook it off almost immediately. And much to her surprise, someone is connected to it. Byullie’s blue string. It’s connected to the red-haired senior. Yuna nudged Dawon and asked about it. “Do you know the red-haired senior?”

“Oh? That’s Minhyuk-sunbae.”

Yuna raised a brow. “Who’s he?”

“He’s a part of the biggest clans in Busay. He’s really rich, especially since he’s engaged to Miss Bae.” Yuna checked his strings this time, and Dawon’s right. He **_IS_** engaged to the other vampire next to him. And their string is red, too. But yeah, the blue string between the Minhyuk-sunbae and Byullie-unnie still confuses her. One is married and the other is engaged to their soulmates.

But that’s not the problem now. She doesn’t want to mess with strings unless she needs to. And now, her focus is her job and her pending 5k kiaos. She’s gonna buy her mom a new pair of pumps when she gets the cash reward. She stood on the stage with her pack and Dongho and some kids who look like some of Dongho’s packmates. Yuna did some math and she found that paying all these people would cost 55 thousand kiaos. “Stop calculating so loud, for whoever’s sake, Yuna.” Luda scolded her.

“You heard me?”

“You should really learn how to close your mind. I want to place bets that maybe even Youngbin-oppa heard whatever you said.”

“ _We all heard it_.” All the fairies who were on the training areas chorused through telepathy and Yuna just gave out a peace sign.

Dongho tapped the mic and began. He’s going to give out instructions and introduce the two packs in charge of recording their statistics. “So today is the start of your public training and recordings. Note that you cannot train before or after this 12 hour session. We’ll start at 8 and we’ll end at 8pm. You may take breaks as you wish. One Unnatural will be in charge on taking your records or training you per year level. You can ask them for help.” He began introducing the members one by one. “First is Jung Wheein, who will look after the Seniors.” Wheein stepped forward and bowed. Then she went off the stage and joined the two teams of seniors. “Then we have Yook Sungjae, who will look after the Juniors.” The handsome member of Dongho’s stepped up and did a small curtsy. He joined the junior. In Yuna’s eyes, he has a cute number of strings. There are lots of people who have their eyes on him, but he looks uninterested. “Bobby Kim will take charge of the 8th year students.” **_His eyes definitely yells Kitsune._** That’s the best description she can give him. “Park Junghwa will look after the 7th year students.” Some of the boys yelled. Yuna concluded her popularity. “Kim Namjoo will look after the 6th year students.” Namjoo is also quite popular in the boys’ side. Probably because they’re pretty. That concludes Dongho’s pack, so Yuna’s pack will go on after them. “Nam Dawon will look after the 5th year students.” Dawon did the same as the others and she left the stage. “Choi Yuna will be looking after the 4th year students.” When Yuna was called, she was hella simple. She just bowed and came down. The 4th year students gave her an ok sign and winked. They like their trainer already. Yuna chuckled, but when she looked at the 4th year kids, something caught her eye.

 

The gold string.

But her eyesight may be messing with her.

Because she’s seeing it connected to three people.

She blinked and oh gosh, this world **_has got_** to be kidding her.

 

HOW ON EARTH IS SHE GONNA MATCH THREE PEOPLE?!

* * *

 

As if matching two hearts wasn’t hard enough, now she had to match three. They don’t even have the “family” string connected to them, so she doesn’t know where or HOW to connect them. She watched the 4th year kids play around with their packs. There are familiar kids to Yuna. For example is Eunwoo, who keeps throwing side glances at her. Eunwoo’s the fellow fairy, the fairy of faith. Yuna doesn’t know why Eunwoo just throws side glances at her and doesn’t talk to her. The other is Joo Kyulkyung. She’s a pretty Strigoi. But she’s one of the people who fell for Mingyu’s charm. Meanwhile, her werewolf friend is in love with Dawon. Yuna can only sigh at the complicatedness of the strings. She also saw Lee Gunhee in one of the packs. A few days ago, that kid mistook her as the fairy of beauty in chances of mouth reduction – she and Dongmin had to give him a pep talk, because he’s already handsome and his reach is overwhelming. Of course, well, mermaids are beauties in vain. The people she had to match are in Yeo Hwanwoong’s pack. Yeo Hwanwoong is the smallest in his pack – probably because he’s an elf. Their pack, well, at first glance, you can really feel their power. You can tell that they’re strong. Yuna doesn’t have an idea how to fight like them, since she prefers using magic in fighting rather than the usual fistfights, but seeing Seungcheol and Seokwoo’s aura, the pack doesn’t fall far from them. “Hwanwoong!” She called the younger boy. He smiled and came to her quickly.

“Hello, Yuna-noona!” He beamed. He’s in the same potions class as her. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Yeah.” She pointed at the three people she has to match. Two boys and one girl. The girl is noticeably sitting between the two towers. One of the towering boys has specs, while the other has a dinosaur-like face. The girl has a resting bitch face while the dino-like guy has a smile across his face. The specs guy looks like he’s ready to drag anyone as soon as he can. “Who are they?” She asked.

This question bewildered Hwanwoong. “You seriously don’t know them, noona?” He pouted and looked back at the three. “There **_THE Trio._** Hwang Eunbi,” He said, pointing at the girl. “A Strigoi. Then we have Jung Chanwoo,” Then he pointed at the specs guy. “He’s a draconian. Last is Moonbin.” He pointed at the dino-like guy. “He’s a werewolf. They’re like, one of the strongest trios in this school!”

Yuna raised a brow. She would understand ‘partners’ but she doesn’t understand ‘trios’. “Don’t we use the partners system here? You keep using the word trio instead of partners.”

He shook his head. “There are a few that can use the trio system if they want to, and they use it. So technically Eunbi, Moonbin and Chanwoo are on their own trio then me, Juyeon, and Yeeun are in a trio. We also use the partners system when we need to.”

Yuna nodded in understanding. “Wait, what’s between those three?”

“They’re childhood friends, noona!” Yuna blinked at Hwanwoong’s statement. Back then, Yongsun used to tell her that friendship hearts are the hardest to get. Why? Because pure love isn’t easily felt with friends. She doesn’t kiss or confess to your friends. You don’t just go and tell your friends “I love you” and they would take it as pure love. Love of friends is the hardest to deal with. She stared at their strings. There’s not even a romantic connection between them! Yuna just sighed and began thinking – **_What to do?!_** Yuna can only heave a heavy sigh. She stared at the trio everyone was talking about. Every now and then, Eunbi, the only girl in the trio, would comment on something and the other two boys would nod at her comment. Chanwoo and Moonbin’s red strings are connected to different girls. Chanwoo’s can be found tied to one of the members of Eunwoo’s pack. The girl who has buns on her head. While Moonbin’s can be found on Eunwoo, Yuna’s fairy friend.

“Hey.” Yuna was startled. Seokmin suddenly appeared next to her, and she moved over to make him sit on the bench. He looks tired. He’s been making rounds to instruct the training team how to do this work. His eye bags are unnecessarily present, and his smile is still there but it’s somehow faded now, but still there. Yuna can’t help but be disappointed. She likes his smile a lot, but tough work isn’t making him smile. “Hwanwoong, please excuse us for a bit.” Hwanwoong bowed politely and nodded as he excused himself. “Here’s the preliminary chart they took. You can see exactly their weight, height, race type and kind in that paper. And there are two types of training.” He pointed at the table of the chart. “The first type is the **_Mental._** In this training, the kids will try to beat each other out mentally. The test will depend on the day, and there will be two mental tests. One in 9am, right after the orientation and one at 7:30pm.”

“Who are the kids against with?” Yuna asked.

“Just within their year level. That works for the physical training, too. In **_Physical,_** it’s just the sparrings.”

“How do I grade them?”

“The winner gets 10 points, the loser gets 5 points, if it’s a draw, they will both get 7.5” He sighed and she heard him whisper that he has three more batches to go to.

Yuna nodded and gave him a pat on his back. “Hey, you’re doing well, alright?”

Seokmin smiled and nodded as he stood up. “I should go.”

“Yeah, do well!”

Seokmin playfully frowned. “You told me I’m already doing well!”

“But you are.” She motioned him to leave and he smiled back and finally left. When he did, one of the girls from Kyulkyung’s pack glared at her. She saw her strings. The girl **_DEFINITELY_** likes Seokmin but their strings are blue.

“You!” She yelled at Yuna and Yuna’s face went backward. Yuna saw her nameplate. **_Kim Taeha._** That’s the name of the girl who likes Seokmin. “I challenge you to a battle!”

 

 

Yuna blinked.

The rest of the 4th year kids blinked, too.

Her packmate is ready to pull her back.

“What for?” Yuna asked, completely innocent but not exactly innocent. She’s suspecting that Taeha would want to ask her to stop approaching Seokmin because the girl clearly has a one-sided love to her partner but she can’t just assume –

 

“If I beat you, you will stop being with Seokmin-oppa!”

Yuna raised a brow. “But we’re partners? I literally can’t get rid of him, though?”

“I don’t care! If you lose, you’ll stop following him around.”

“Taeha must be crazy.” Yuna heard gold-string girl say. “She must be out of her damned mind.” She commented, and Chanwoo nodded at her. He raised his arm.

“If you lose, Taeha, will you get us free smoothies?” Chanwoo asked. Yuna noticed some shade here.

“Stop it, Chanwoo. Taeha is strong but that noona looks strong, too.”

“Don’t take Taeha’s side, Bin.” Eunbi scolded him immediately. “If she actually loses, we get smoothies.” She threw a glance at Yuna, which Yuna seems to have received. “What will you get us if you lose, Fairy-unni?”

“I didn’t even say yes, yet.”

Chanwoo smirked. “But you’ll get into battle, trust me, you will.”

Yuna rolled her eyes. She just told herself not to get involved in these cute but tiring battles. “If I lose, I’ll give free love consultations for everyone.” She saw Eunbi shrug and nod.

“Good enough.”

Now that’s settled, Yuna realized her mistake –

 

 

Why oh why did she ever join this fight?

* * *

 


	13. Yuna's Mission

Chapter 13 – Yuna’s Mission

Yuna crooked her neck. She really doesn’t want to fight anyone – like seriously. Because A.) She finds it too tiring, B.) She doesn’t like fighting, C.) She might lose, so goodbye pride, D.) All the spells she knows are defensive and support spells for healing. So when Taeha, who looks like a strong hybrid, challenged her for a battle, Yuna didn’t know what to do. I mean, she still hasn’t passed her first archery practical exam! She removed her blazed and rolled up the sleeves of her polo. Taeha did the same. Yuna can’t help but look at Taeha’s strings. It has two yellows. One is connected to Eunbi while the other is connected to her, maybe, since she can’t really see, but it’s getting stronger, so Yuna probably concluded that it’s hers. She looked at her own hands. Love fairies can’t see who’s connected to theirs, but they CAN see the colours. And there’s a yellow one on Yuna’s hand, so maybe, just maybe, her conclusion is correct. **_The things love can do._** Yuna sighed and she saw Taeha form her stance. She flapped her wings out – She’s a part-strzyga. She can’t really tell her other half. The charts says that she’s a hybrid, but it didn’t tell exactly.

 _“She’s part-banshee. Quit worrying about it too much and win, Yuna.”_ She heard Luda’s voice in her head. She looked around the place, and saw Luda and Mingyu watching from the second floor. Mingyu gave her a thumbs-up. Luda only gave her a nod. _“You know how to use string magic, right?”_

 _“Yeah.”_ Yuna responded with a nod.

_“That’s the only offensive magic you can use as of now. I know that the fairy spells that you know of are only Barrier and Overcome. And it’s not like you can actually help you against her.”_

Yuna raised a brow. _“I can use strings magic in offense? Isn’t strings magic the magic in me that helps me see the strings of fate?”_

 _“No offense, but you need to educate yourself and spend time in my office. SERIOUSLY.”_ She saw Luda roll her eyes. “ _You don’t even know your own magic.”_ Luda pointed at the strings. “ _You can use her strings against her. Bet you didn’t know that.”_

 _“Of course I didn’t.”_ Yuna closed off her eyes. Looks like Taeha is waiting for Yuna to make a first move. _“Should I just use Overcome to make her snap out of it?”_

 _“She looks sane.”_ Luda apparently got tired of telling her what to do. “ _Just admit defeat and give free love counselling!”_

 _“_ Love counselling is easy, but losing my partner is one hell of a task to do.” Yuna blinked and mentally face-palmed. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?”

The fourth-year kids around her nodded, and it looks like Taeha snapped. “So if you lose, you won’t leave Seokmin-sunbae alone?!” She’s fuming and her wings came out. She pulled a sword from her wings, and as she was about to slash Yuna, Yuna immediately took her wings and flew up.

“Oh, she’s quick.” Chanwoo side-remarked. “Taeha is unnaturally quick, but she managed to dodge **_THAT._** Kudos to the fairy!”

Yuna rolled her eyes. **_He still has the chance to comment on this? Lucky him._** Now she has to think about how to fight back without hurting the kid too much. She has to think quickly. Other than the strings, she has no idea how to make her lose. Yuna noticed it, too. Taeha is fast. Her attacks are strong, too. She was able to swing her sword and almost made it slash Yuna. Yuna went back down on the ground, but farther from Taeha. “I can help hook you up with Seokmin!” Yuna tried to reason out.

“That’s even worse.” Taeha was going to dash for another sword attack, but before she did, two dragons appeared before her – a blue one and a black one. Yuna recognized these two dragons. Dongho and Seokmin.

“Enough!” Dongho reverted back to his human form, and so did Seokmin.

“Are you alright?” Seokmin asked Yuna as he scanned her arms for wounds.

“I was doing fine.” She reasoned, quite aggravated, and Seokmin chuckled.

“You were going to lose.” He sighed. “You think I didn’t know that your power comes in defence and support?” He squeezed her arm. “I’m your partner, I know lots.”

Yuna narrowed her eyes and shook her head as she pulled her arm away. “The feeling is not mutual.” She picked up her blazer and put it back on. She’s pissed. A little. She was trying to overcome a weakness – and he just had to appear in the right timing.

“Are you mad?” Seokmin asked, not raising his voice.

“No.” She lied and she sat back down.

The innocent boy, Seokmin, just nodded as Dongho began scolding the fourth-years. “You kids shouldn’t be fighting your senior, what the heck?”

“She gave me permission to fight her.” Taeha reasoned.

“I can’t treat you nicely if you treat my partner like this.” Seokmin warned Taeha.

“ _Broooooodiiiing~”_ Eunbi smirked and chuckled as she sucked on a lollipop. Like, where did the lollipop come from? “I’m liking this show already. Bin-ah, do you have popcorn?”

Moonbin shook his head. “Nope, I don’t.”

“That’s too sad.” Eunbi shrugged her shoulders. She was about to say something else, but Chanwoo stopped her from doing so. “What?” She shot him a glare and he shook his head in disapproval.

“I don’t mess with my seniors, _chika.”_ He affectionately called Eunbi. He gave her a small pat and came forward. He pulled Taeha and said, “I think you should apologize.”

Taeha, bewildered, asked. “What?! Me, apologize?”

“We wouldn’t be in this mess if you didn’t get fiery over Seokmin-hyung, anyway.”

Taeha rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t apologize. Deal with it.” She, then, thought of a great way to settle this. “Then let’s do the sparring together. Winner takes all.”

Yuna noticed one more thing. Taeha has a yellow string connected to Eunbi. Something must be up between the two. Dongho and Seokmin stepped a few steps backward, and Seokmin glanced at Yuna. “Yuna, please give me the charts.” Yuna, unhesitant, passed Seokmin the same charts he gave her.

Dongho tapped her on the shoulder. “Yuna, please come with me.” Yuna raised a brow and excused herself as she watched Seokmin officiate the match. They went up to the bleachers, where most of the other trainers who were on their break were situated.

“What is it?” Yuna asked.

“I need you to take care of something.” He looked back down to the batch Yuna’s assigned to look after. “Moonbin, that werewolf,” He pointed at the junior and he looked at him, as he instructed. “Is a destructive werewolf.”

Yuna raised a brow out of curiosity. “Destructive werewolf?”

Dongho nodded. “He doesn’t have any sense of control when it comes to his wolf form.” He glanced at Mingyu and Yugyeom downstairs who were laughing with the teams they are going to train. “Unlike Mingyu and Yugyeom, who control their wolf forms, Moonbin is a kid who can’t control his. _Especially during the full moon.”_

Yuna looked up at the taller draconian and asked, “So, do you want me to look after him?”

Dongho nodded once more. “Yes, and help him overcome his urges during the full moon.” He sighed. “Of course, it won’t come in free, but I came from the City of Spells, so I can get you a book of spells from that city as long as he overcomes his wolf side.”

Yuna’s getting suspicions that Dongho is hefty rich. First of all, he’s willing to pay them 5K kiaos. And now, he’s revealing that he used to be a citizen of the City of Spells – also known as Mayon, the wealthiest city in their region. Yuna blinked twice – no, maybe even thrice. If she takes this job on, she will gain lots of stuffs – it’s a win-win situation for her! “Alright, I’m up for the challenge.”

* * *

 

 

It didn’t take Yuna long before she took over Seokmin. By the time she came back, Chanwoo and Taeha’s battle was already over. Both of them were sitting on their respective teams, so Yuna looked at the charts. Turns out, the match was a draw and no one won. Yuna thought of ways how to help them, but she had to get to know them first. Since she impressed them with her speed, looks like she’s got a little bit of respect from the kids. “Line up!” She called them out, and one by one, the packs formed two horizontal lines. With two packs on the front and two at the back, they faced Yuna and Yuna stared at them, looked back at the charts. Then began to analyze the kids one by one. She kinda wishes that she has Luda’s fairy glasses – Luda’s glasses can help her see the body stats much better. She first started with the first pack. It’s Hwanwoong’s pack. Their physique is good, as a group. Well, not that she knows much about it, but hey, she can observe, too. Their group name is _‘The Victorem’._ The Latin word for ‘winners’. “The Victorem’s leader, introduce yourselves one by one with focus. We have offense, defence, support and strategy as the focuses.” The ‘focus’ basically defines one’s style in battling. In Yuna’s case, she focuses on strategy, which utilizes her skills in defence and strategy.

The six kids bowed politely, a 360 of their sort of rude sides earlier. The first one to introduce himself is Hwanwoong. Hwanwoong is short, but handsome. “Yeo Hwanwoong. I’m in strategy.” He pointed at the next girl with the same height as him. She’s pretty, and her nose is sharp. “Son Juyeon’s on support and Jang Yeeun, Jung Chanwoo, Moonbin and Hwang Eunbi are all in offense.” Yuna can’t help but raise a brow. **_No one’s on defence?_** Luda taught her that the first thing everyone needs are the defence team. I mean, in their pack, Yugyeom is on defence, but she just guessed that every pack is different.

“Coming For You, the second pack, do your introductions.” The second pack next to Hwanwoong’s, Taeha’s is built with skinny guys and tall girls. Except maybe that one guy who looks like a kitsune, all the boys are skinny.

“Kim Taeha, I’m in strategy.” She pointed at the other members of the pack. “Kim Donghan, Joo Kyulkyung and Jung Yein are all in offense.” She pointed at the kitsune-looking guy, Kyulkyung, the pretty Strigoi and Yein, the specs girl other than Chanwoo. “Chanhee is in support and Changmin is on defence.” She pointed at the two skinny guys. Chanhee looks like someone who’s loud while Changmin smiled widely, making her guess that he’s the smiley one.

“Amigas,” Her brows furrowed at the weird pack name. “The leader, introduce your pack.” It’s the pack behind Hwanwoong’s. The pack with Lee Gunhee and Yuna has to admit this, but they look strong. She raised a brow as she checked the charts to find out their races. “You have a white fox?” White foxes are variations of kitsunes. While typical kitsunes take the red form, only few are powerful enough to take the white form. That alone is already a feat.

One of them nodded. “Yes, we do.”

“And you have an angel, too?”

The same girl raised her arm. “Yes, that’s me. I’m also the leader.”

Yuna nodded in understanding. Her eyes widened when she saw the Angel’s profile. “Kim Yewon?” She called out the leader. “You’re a _principality?”_ She asked. As if a white fox wasn’t a hard feat, they have one of the highest-ranking angels, too. “Aren’t you going out too strong?”

“Yes, I am.” Yuna nodded at Yewon’s confirmation and she went ahead and introduced her pack. “I’m Kim Yewon, I’m in charge of strategy.” She pointed at their white fox. “She’s Meng Meiqi, in charge of offense with Elly Jung and Vernon Chwe. Lee Gunhee and Chong Elkie are in defence and Boo Seungkwan is in support.” Vernon is a vampire. Gunhee and Elkie are both mermaids, and Seungkwan is a skinwalker, a non-fiery hellhound – but still dangerous. Yuna commended Yewon for her intelligence in assigning the focuses, or if not, choosing who does who. Well, she IS a principality, after all. This is the first well-rounded pack she’s seen.   

“Alright, the last one. The Revolutionists.” Yuna immediately understood why they were called _revolutionists._ Among all the packs, they’re the only ones who has a pack made of four girls and two boys. A weird combination, but this combination is indeed, witty. This is Eunwoo’s pack and the last pack. Something also caught her eye. “You have an omega wolf.” She noted. Omega werewolves are strong werewolves – as strong as an alpha. “Omega, raise your hand.”

The omega werewolf, raised his arm. “Yes?”

“Are you a cursed one or were you bitten by a werewolf?” She asked if he was a werewolf born out of two werewolves or a werewolf because he was bit by one. That would gauge his strength.

“A cursed one.”

Yuna nodded and looked back at Hwanwoong’s pack. “Isn’t there a werewolf in your pack, too.”

Moonbin raised his arm. “Yes, that’s me.”

Yuna nodded once more. “I look forward to your battle with the other wolf.” Both of the werewolves’ eyes widened, but before anyone could ask, Yuna immediately moved on to asking the Revolutionists once more. “And you have Eunwoo, a fairy.” She nodded. “Alright, leader.” She called out the leader.

“I’m Kim Dahyun, I’m on support.” She pointed at the omega wolf next to her. “Kevin Moon is on offense with Juyeon and Elly. Eunwoo is on strategy and Cheng Xiao is on support with me.” Juyeon and Chengxiao are both humans, knight and witch respectively, and Elly is a Strigoi.

Yuna nodded. “Alright, please sit on the floor; I have a thing to discuss with you before the clock strikes nine for your mental test.” The juniors did as she instructed and they sat on the floor. Yuna can now see their strings with her eyes. She wasn’t able to see it clearly earlier since they were standing and some of them were too tall or too short. “You guys know that it’s the full moon in a few days, and I’m sure not everyone finished taming the beasts within you.” Everyone looked at one another while Hwanwoong’s pack avoided Moonbin’s gaze. “It’s not beneficial for you to have the games while on rampage. The reason why I’m here is because you guys, along with the first-years, have the most number of untamed forms.” **_Thank Luda for the extra info!_** “I know a spell that can wake up the untamed beasts within you, so this, of course, is dangerous, but I also know of a spell that can wake the human you up.” The four packs nodded, and Yuna noticed Eunbi and Chanwoo interlacing their arms with Moonbin.

 

 ** _The strings! It’s becoming stronger!_** Yuna told herself as she stared at the strings, but she snapped out of it immediately.

“Alright, let’s start with Moonbin and Kevin on a mental battle.”


	14. The Dress

14 –

It didn’t take long before Yuna was able to finish the first mental test and the sparring tests. They finished just in time for the lunch break. She’s gave the juniors their free time and asked them to spend it wisely and return at 4 in the afternoon. Since she’s going to look at their focuses and how well do they do it. They’ve been informed that the next mental test is an exam. Yuna, of course, is excited. The next thing that she likes after potions are exams. She doesn’t know why she likes it, though, when her packmates REALLY hate it. Speaking of her packmates, the six of them were sitting on the floor with ramyun. They’re hanging around in Luda’s office because Luda suggested to, for a change. And since Luda’s office has air con and tv, they all agreed immediately. But Yuna knows why Luda made her come here –

“You better look at those offensive fairy spells that you can use for later.” Luda reminded her as she dropped a book on the floor. Yuna picked it up and looked at its thickness. She groaned. It’s twice as thick as their physics book, and their physics book is as thick as a bible but as large as a regular textbook – in short, it’s thick-ass. “Finish a fourth of it in a week.”

“Wow, that’s like the entire Old Testament.”

Luda nodded. “Exactly.”

Yuna groaned and the others just laughed at them. Yugyeom suddenly remembered something. “Oh, Yuna. What was with your kids earlier? I suddenly heard chanting and it sounded like war.”

Yuna groaned once more. Seokmin also raised his head in curiosity. “I also want to know about it. Your first mental exam seems to have caused a ruckus.”

Yuna took her ramyun cup from Mingyu and he gave her some tissues. “Thank you.” She thanked him and he just gave a thumb up as he began slurping his. “I speed-studied that fairy spell, Awaken.”

Mingyu and Yugyeom both raised a brow. “Our instructor in Full Moon class is a fairy, and from what we know, that’s a special spell to wake our inner selves.” Mingyu began. “You speed-studied that? I can’t even speed-study the formula for density.”

“Yuna is not doltish. She’s just lethargic.” Luda explained. “I only recited to her the chant and she got it in one go.”

“Hey, Gyu, pass me that dictionary you made for Luda’s vocabulary.” Seokmin suddenly asked Mingyu, which made them all turn heads, even Luda.

“What?” Bewildered, Luda asked as the two boys passed a dictionary to each other. “You lamebrains made a dictionary about the way I talk?”

“Yes.” The three boys chorused and the two other girls just laughed.

“Let me see!”

“No!” The three boys chorused once more.

“Oh, quit pulling a glee club and just give it to me!” The four, forgetting about their food, ran up to Luda’s library upstairs – to maybe do a game of running.

And this left Dawon and Yuna together. “So what happened at the training area earlier?” Dawon asked. “I’m pretty curious, too, well, other than the fact that you speed-studied a spell in one go.” Yuna really likes Dawon’s tone. It’s deeper than a usual girl’s, but it’s harmonious and it oozes of royalty. Yuna, at first, thought that Dawon is some sort of wealthy daughter because of her prim and properness.

“Well, I used awaken on two werewolves, and I can assure you that it almost ended in a brawl.”

* * *

 

Three hours ago, Yuna heaved a heavy sigh as she started to chant the spell she’ll use to awaken the two wolves. Luda just gave her one shot to memorize it.  **That fairy.** Yuna rolled her eyes and raised her arm, then her wings, as well. She’ll recite it, of course. With Luda’s incredible teaching, of course. With sarcasm, of course. _“Awaken, the beasts within, make the clock come in, shift the tides of the moon, make the dirtiest of stems bloom.”_ And with the last word of the spell, the place became darker, and everyone was at awe.

“Whoa, what the heck?” Eunbi remarked as the two werewolves fangs began to show. Their furs began showing and their claws retracted, their postures also changed – they’re changing to their wolf form.

**_“Are you kidding me, you told me it’s your first time using that spell, you’re like a pro!”_** Luda complained with telepathy.

**_“I never thought I’m good at spells, though.”_ **

**_“Interesting, Yuna.”_** Luda nodded and she allowed Yuna to go on ahead on her own. When the two werewolves changed to their wolf forms, their physiques changed completely. It’s noticeable that Moonbin is tall, but since his data stated that he’s a beta, he’s technically smaller than Kevin. Kevin, as he is an omega, is about twice as large as Moonbin. Yuna suspects that Kevin might’ve been an alpha – the strongest types of wolves, before turning to an omega. If he  ** _was_** an alpha, it means that he’s probably seen the death of his comrades but hey, that’s not new.

“Remember that this is a MENTAL BATTLE. We are not going to go physical. I’ll fail ya’ll for your tests if ever we go physical here. That’s a big no-no, sweeties.” She pulled a magic whistle from her pocket – not so magical, actually. It’s just loud. “The first mental test is simple. First one to snap out of the wolf form wins.”

Dahyun, the elf leader of Kevin’s Pack, and notably, Kevin’s girlfriend, according to the strings, immediately protested. “Hold up, they didn’t know about it! This is unfair.”

“Werewolves’ instincts when used of the spell, Awaken is simple, actually. They will do everything to snap out of it.”

This time, Eunbi was the one who protested. “Well that’s beyond unfair for Moonbin. Kevin mastered transformation already.”

Yuna shook her head. “Awaken is not natural transformation.” Yuna began explaining. Her younger brother, Seonho, likes werewolves a lot to the point that he has multiple books about it. She lowkey thank him, because when she once got sick, she finished all volumes of Seonho’s Werewolf Comics, which is basically the bible of werewolves, thus the reason why she knows lots about werewolves. She was actually able to tell that both Mingyu and Yugyeom are betas. “Awaken is a powerful spell that forces them to change to their real forms. They won’t snap out of it easily regardless of transformation mastery.” When Eunbi stepped back, Yuna continued explaining the test. “But, the packmates will do everything to stop the other member from coming out of their wolf form. So Hwanwoong’s pack will stop Kevin from coming back to his human self and Dahyun’s pack will stop Moonbin from coming to his senses. If in 5 minutes and no one changed back to their human forms, it will end in a tie, that’s all.”

Hwanwoong raised a question this time. “Can we try to talk to our wolves for a moment?”

Yuna nodded. “Yes you may.” As if on cue, the wolves became surrounded by their packmates. Yuna suddenly needed an SOS. She needed a hearing spell. “ ** _Luda”_**  She called her out for help.

**_“What?”_ **

**_“Send help. What’s the spell for enhanced hearing?”_ **

**_“We don’t use spells for that. Use your fairy glasses!”_** Yuna mentally face-palmed as she remembered the use of her fairy glasses. She ran her hand through her face and then, the glasses appeared. And Luda was right, it INDEED enhanced her hearing, as she hears what she wants to hear now. And that, of course, is the conversation between Hwanwoong’s pack. She saw Eunbi hugging Moonbin’s nape, with Chanwoo kneeling in front of him, holding his neck.

“Bin-ah, if you can’t do it, we should just surrender, 10 points won’t hurt us.” Eunbi looked like she was begging – begging for him to surrender, as if the 10 points wasn’t really a big deal. “We can fight back in the physical battle.” This is when Yuna saw the bitch-faced ice princess soften. She finds it amazing, honestly. Now that she’s wearing the fairy glasses, she was able to see the trio’s depth. Indeed, it’s the strongest friendship bond she’s ever seen. It’s not even in the friendship level; it’s already in the familial level.

“The 10 points don’t matter to us, Bin. We can still win this thing with our skills.” Chanwoo, this time, asked him. Yuna can tell that these three depend on each other a lot. She saw Moonbin shake his head.

“Hey!” The two chorused. She saw Eunbi tear up.

“Are you crazy?” She asked. “No, we’re calling it quits!”

Moonbin growled, as if he was saying he can do this. Eunbi can only frown and pat on his head. Hwanwoong nodded and glanced at Yeeun and Eunseo, or Juyeon, but since there are two Juyeons in this batch, she prefers to be called Eunseo. “This means that we have to do our best in distracting Kevin.”

The two nodded. And Eunbi and Chanwoo soon did the same. “We’ll do our best, so change back quickly, alright?”

Yuna felt happy. Their friendship is beautiful enough to steal Yuna’s heart, but she has to cut the scene short. She has to start the test. She blew the whistle and the packs bid their wolves farewell and moved to the other wolf. She blew her whistle for the second time, and it began. She saw the two wolves concentrate. But as they began concentrating, the packs also began messing with them. Eunbi threw multiple insults at Kevin, but what really got Yuna was Eunwoo, her fellow fairy who belonged to Dahyun’s pack. She never thought that Eunwoo would be able to say words like that –

“Didn’t you try to kill Eunbi last year, Moonbin?” She began intimidating Moonbin. “Why, doesn’t her flesh taste nice? You like human and fairy flesh?” Yuna can’t help but be at awe – they’re soulmates, but now, Eunwoo is busy insulting him, and he seems to be insulted. “Well, I guess that’s the bad side of being a Strigoi like Eunbi. Her blood is really worthless.” And from Yuna’s perspective, that made Moonbin growl. She guesses that it made him really mad, and Eunbi seems to have heard of this.

“Hey, Eunwoo! You’re going too far!” She complained.

Eunwoo just raised a brow at Eunbi. “I was only telling the truth.”

“What, is the truth insulting Eunbi?!” This time, Chanwoo joined in. “What bulls**t is that?”

“I have a point, though? Eunbi is a Strigoi. A corrupted vampire, a demon-vampire hybrid, an instrument of evil, is she not? And yet, she’s the weakest of all the dark-coloured Unnaturals.” Eunwoo smirked. “And her flesh is worthless, has no use and can only be beneficial to Strzygas. Who’s going to benefit to her?”

And Moonbin got mad at her words and he jumped at her, swinging his claws. But before he can slash Eunwoo’s face, Yewon, the Angel from one of the packs stepped forward and blocked the two with her sword at the same moment that Yuna blew her whistle. Kevin finished transforming back. Moonbin lost.

Yuna snapped her fingers and Moonbin changed back to his human form. Weakened, his legs collapsed on the spot. Eunwoo also seems to be traumatized by the scene, as her eyes are still wide and she’s also on the floor. Eunbi and Chanwoo rushed to Moonbin’s aid, and Eunwoo’s packmates came to her as well. “First win, Kevin Moon.” Yuna announced as the packs joined each other. “Second match, Gunhee versus Taeha.” She glanced at the two packs. “Does anyone need healing?”

Kevin shook his head and Moonbin did the same. Yuna can only admire the trio as they helped each other to the seats and they began planning. She heard their plans, and this made Yuna realize why they were called ‘champions’.

* * *

 

Dawon nodded in understanding to the story. “So that’s what happened.”

Now, it was Yuna’s turn to ask. “So was anything interesting in your training grounds? You trained our batchmates.”

Dawon can only nod. “Jung Chaeyeon’s pack is interesting enough. The stars of last year are in that pack.”

“What about our class’ pack?”

“Yoo Taeyang is a bad leader, that’s for sure. No wonder he has beef with Seokmin. They are so contrasting!” She explained, which made Yuna raise a brow.

“Yoo Taeyang and Seokmin had a beef?” Yuna asked. She’s known of Taeyang as the quiet guy in their class, and she knows that he’s a draconian, too, but she didn’t know that he and Seokmin had something.

Dawon nodded. “Seokmin and Chaeyeon used to date until a year ago.”

Yuna blinked.

Twice.

“They did  ** _WHAT?!”_**

Dawon nodded once more. “They dated. That’s no big deal though. The big deal is that Chaeyeon chose Seokmin over Taeyang.” Yuna, super curious and super nosy, looked out to the field and began looking for Taeyang. When she found him, she found his strings connected to his packmate, also Yuna’s classmate in P.E, Roseanne Park.

“Too bad he’s not gonna end up with Chaeng.”

“That’s a pity, then.”

“Hey.” Now, Luda got tired of chasing the boys and their dictionary, so she sat in front of Yuna. “Did you get yourself a chengpai for the Dragon Parade this Saturday Evening?”

As if question marks appeared on Yuna’s head, she asked, confused, “Chengpai?” She asked. “What are those?”

Luda and Dawon blinked, and so did Seokmin – they were bewildered. Seokmin asked the two. “Didn’t you two inform her?”

“Inform me what?”

“We’re going to walk on the Dragon Parade together.”

Yuna blinked. “What’s that?”

“The ceremony for the end of the Dragon Week. Every member of the Draconian Council will walk in the parade with their partners.” He explained and he raised a brow. “Didn’t you know?”

“Hey,” She nudged Seokmin. “We’re partners, but last time I checked, you know more about me that me knowing more about you.”

Mingyu clapped one loud clap and chimed. “That’s why chengpai shopping is the best way to get to know each other!” He beamed and he nudged Luda. “Help me buy mine, too!”

Luda rolled her eyes and said, “Yeah, fine, whatever.”

Yuna looked at Seokmin. “What about us?”

Seokmin chuckled and answered, “Let’s go to a different store than those two, we will be interrupting a lovers’ moment.” This made Yuna shocked as she looked at their hands.

 

A blue string between Luda and Mingyu. An unfated relationship. “You guys are dating? Since when?!”

“Not yet. I just confessed a while ago.” Mingyu beamed and the room was filled with congratulations and a shy Luda. Everyone’s happy for them, it’s just that Yuna can’t help but be sad. She doesn’t like seeing blue strings above everything else. Because it’ll just end up as heartache for both of them.

* * *

 

Seokmin and Yuna went to the store outside their school. It’s small but luxurious, QuanSi. The store has lots of chengpais in display. Chengpai are of the few traditional clothes in Busay. These are usually used in Dragon Week, Kitsune Week, the New Year and Lantern’s Day by common men. Until recently, those with social roles are the only ones who are allowed to wear chengpais, but with the recent law passed by the Grand Fairy who aims for equality, ordinary unnaturals are now allowed to wear chengpais on the said days. And with that, the produce and incomes of the dressmakers increased. It varies differently from one another depending on size and style.

“Preminger.” Seokmin called out the designer, and the designer came out from the counter. He has a long beard, and he’s on his chengpai. He has a measuring tape draped across his shoulders.

“Young Master!” Preminger cheered at the sight of Seokmin while Yuna narrowed her eyes.

“ _Young Master,_ huh?” Yuna sarcastically began while Seokmin chuckled it off.

“That’s how he calls everyone, Yuna.” He shook his hands with Preminger and the designer beamed.

“So, what can I do for you today, Young Master? Did your chengpai break after a ~good~ night?”

Seokmin frowned and pouted. “Not in front of the girl, Preminger!” He nudged the designer and asked. “Can you help us pick out a chengpai for my partner for the Dragon Parade?”

“Why of course! Anything for the Ice Dragons!” Preminger left the room to go to his hall, to check out chengpais that will fit Yuna for a bit. This gave Yuna the chance to ask Seokmin.

“Ice Dragon?” She asked.

“I’m a Lee. I came from a family of Ice Dragons.”

“I thought you’re a water dragon.”

“Because of my blue scales? My mom is a Water Dragon.” Then he pointed at the exit where Preminger headed at. “He used to serve my father back then.”

“You’re the heir of the Lee Clan?” She asked, finally. This thought has been bothering Yuna for a while now. From what she heard, the Lee Clan is the most conservative among all the dragon clans. And if he dated Chaeyeon, he must’ve gone through all sorts of hell.

He only nodded, and Yuna gave off a small ‘oh’.

Then there was awkward silence until Preminger came back out. “Miss, I’ve found the best chengpai for you, milady!” He beamed once more then pulled Yuna into the dressing room, leaving Seokmin on his own. “Young Master, trust me, you will be left in awe.”

“I trust you on this, Preminger!”

“Of course you have to, who else do you have, anyway?” Preminger gladly made his way into the room and joined Yuna. “Milady, this chengpai suits you the best.” Yuna looked at the chengpai with absolute adoration. It’s beautiful. It has a dark turquoise torso and a sea green coloured loose sleeves. Her waist is tied on a blue ribbon and the dress remained until her foot. The skirt is decorated with pink scales and she can’t help but notice the skilful embroidery on the dress.

“Oh, this is so beautiful!”

“Thank you, Milady. Try it on.” Yuna went inside the changing room and changed to the chengpai.

Indeed, Preminger is not wrong in picking clothes, and Seokmin was right about trusting him. Because as Yuna came to let Seokmin see the dress, his heart started pounding insanely and he suddenly doesn’t know where to look.

Is it the dress?


	15. 15 - Dragons

**Chapter 15** **–** **Dragons**

After training and the hellish of an exam the players took, most of them took their dinners. Some packs ate together at the bright field of theirs, red-clad and bright. At night time, the field looked especially loud. There are lots of food stalls, and most of them are Dragon Food mixed in to fit the other Unnatural’s taste. For example is Spicy Fairy Chicken. Yuna had her mom cooking those back in the past and the only one who liked it are her mom and Seonho. Her Dad and Lucy were disgusted. Speaking of her family, Yuna saw Seonho, Lucy and their friends eat at one stall while she saw her parents on a date together. Either way, she’s also, technically, in a date. Since the new lovebirds decided to go on a first date – at the stalls, cheap of Mingyu, by the way, and the two other single kids, Dawon and Yugyeom, went to the chengpai store to claim their clothes. She and Seokmin are now left together for dinner, and the two decided to go to one of the stalls. They’re not lovers and it’s not like someone’s treating. It’s just an ordinary dinner for the both of them, well, hopefully, Yuna prayed for it not to be eventful. She wants it to be the typical dinner between friends, and that nothing bad happens tonight. She noticed it, it’s as if all mishaps chase her. Her partner almost lost all his blood the last time she chased a heart.

Tonight was a bit different, though. She and Seokmin went out for the first time after a tiring day. She and her partner would usually go out with the pack, but since everyone’s out for today, they’re left with no choice. Seokmin went ahead to buy her food. Since the things she likes in this festivity is most likely Spiced Fairy Cow Skewers. The only non-vegan food she likes. Grilled cow sparkled with fairy dust. As Yuna was waiting for Seokmin, she noticed Byullie, the Strzyga Med major who helped them out with Seokmin’s wounds. She was with her husband-slash-soulmate and a three-year-old looking girl. Yuna noted that the small girl was wearing an all-black dress and pearls. The husband is tall and good-looking. He has small eyes, which looked a lot like the little girl’s.

“Hey, something caught your eye?” Seokmin finally arrived with their orders.

“Thank you.” Yuna took her order from the tray and Seokmin did the same before chanting a few words of prayer. After this, she began munching off her food. “Yeah, a cute couple with their baby.”

He nodded as he opened the wrapping of his own food. “Chandong-hyung and his wife?” He asked before taking a bite and she nodded.

“They are such a cute couple.”

“True.” He began picking out the vegetables from his spicy chicken burger. “But you know, I once heard a rumour that the little girl, Minnie, is not Chandong-hyung’s child.”

Yuna raised a brow. “But the kid’s face is definitely the father’s.”

He shrugged. “A rumour won’t come out unless a part of it is true, right?”

She nodded at his opinion that’s somehow correct. “Well, you have a point there.” She watched him eat, piquing up her curiosity. “So, what else do I need to know about you that I don’t know yet and I wouldn’t probably know unless we talk now?”

He asked, “What do you want to know?”

“Chaeyeon.” She began, and she noticed that he began to smile bitterly, a smile she hasn’t seen in him. “How did you two manage to date? From what I heard, your family’s a conservative one, and you’re an heir, too?”

It took him a bit before he could process. “We were a Sojung-Seungcheol. My family found out, and I almost got stripped out of my royal status.”

Yuna stopped eating, suddenly feeling guilty. From what she heard from her mother, royal dragons, like Seokmin, play an important role in a dragon clan. And from what she heard, it’s a mortal sin to marry a fairy – there’s only a few dragon clans left, and it’s not like they can be dragons. Draconians and Fairies, after all, according to science, would have a fairy child automatically. There hasn’t been anyone who’s proven that science wrong. “Sorry I asked that.”

“Now it’s my turn to ask.” He began smiling back to his usual smile, Yuna’s favourite smile. “So, do you like anyone in school?” Yuna suddenly felt her strings on her hands tugging. The red one. As said, she can see others’ strings, but not hers. She can see the beginning, in her hands, but not the end, on her soulmate’s hands.

Thinking the thought off, she returned to Seokmin’s question. She has seen lots of good-looking people in school. Choi Seungcheol, in her eyes, is good-looking. Mingyu and Seokmin, too. Soonyoung, her hellhound friend in the first week who’s joining the games (actually, she saw him a while ago), Yugyeom, and maybe Hwang Minhyun, too. But she doesn’t like anyone yet. Maybe because of her standards or something, but she doesn’t see herself dating anyone soon. “No one yet.” She answered honestly. “I’d actually love to have a crush or two, so that I won’t bury myself in books and spells.”

“Do you have someone you have your eyes on?” Yuna rolled her eyes and was about to say something until Seokmin stood up with eyes wide open.

“What’s going on?”

“Someone—“ He stopped for a bit. “A dragon is in trouble.” He sniffed around and looked at his arm. His scales are out because of danger, and it’s not good. “Someone’s fighting, I have to check it out.”

Yuna sighed and mentally complained about her bad luck. “You’re my partner. We can’t legit ditch each other, right?”

He smiled a bit before pulling her up of her chair and to the forest. And Seokmin was right. As they entered the forest, Yuna had her wings up for defense. They walked to the forest carefully and Seokmin smelled the scent – or rather, the dragon fire. Dragon fire is a magic draconians use as their signal if someone is in danger, and Seokmin is right. In the middle of the forest was a familiar trio, all on their other forms. Eunbi, Chanwoo and Moonbin. Seokmin immediately realized the type of monster the three are facing. “It’s a Madevaux.”

“Madevaux is a monster made with fairy blood and Strigoi blood.” Yuna added. “I’ll dismantle them.” She flapped her wings out and flew up to meet the monster on her own.

“Yah, Choi Yuna!” He flapped out his dragon wings as well and followed her up. “You can’t do it on your own! Madevaux monsters are powerful.”

“Against dragons.” She fought back before diving in to help the three kids. She went in front of them and stood firmly. She has to think of a spell that can dismantle and temporarily paralyze the monster. To her misfortune, she doesn’t know any other offensive fairy spell, so she has to use fairy dust – the favoured attack for a fairy-based monster. “Seokmin!” She called out her partner. “Do me a favour and make sure the kids get out of this alive.”

Seokmin unsure what to do, just did as she instructed and pulled Eunbi and Moonbin out first. “Hey! Stop it, we’re not leaving without Chanwoo!”

“We’re not leaving without him, either!” Seokmin rebutted.”And Chanwoo is a freaking royal dragon, he can handle himself!”

“Not with fairy magic!” Eunbi reasoned as she tried to pull her arm away from Seokmin but Seokmin is much more stronger than expected. “Let me go! I’m not going to leave my partner!”

“We’re not! We’re just leaving first!” Seokmin’s arms turned to his dragon claws and he forced the other two to retreat with him first. “Yuna, can you do Chanwoo?”

“Alrighty then!” Yuna flew up to Chanwoo and went on his back, the usual defence stance. “When I say run, you goddamnit better be a descendant of the Flash.”

“Uh, we’ll see about that.”

“One,”

 

“Two,”

 

“Run!” The moment Yuna said that, Chanwoo ran as fast as he could, Yuna tried to dispel the monster as fast as she could, but the moment Chanwoo dashed out, the monster ran to follow Chanwoo before Yuna can spray fairy dust unto it. “Shit.” Yuna flew up and chased it as well, but before Yuna can dispel it, it bit on Chanwoo’s leg.

“Ouch!” The younger yelped. The monster stopped biting him and Yuna finally got a hold of him, eventually spreading fairy dust all over the monster.

“Chanwoo!” She screamed as she flew down to the draconian. She ripped her shirt and used it to pressurize on the wound. “Yah, yah, don’t worry, we’ll get you to a doctor.” Seokmin, along with Eunbi and Moonbin, joined Yuna and the wounded Chanwoo. Moonbin saw Yuna holding onto Chanwoo’s wounded leg so he immediately switched with her.

“Yah!” Eunbi yelled at Yuna, mad. “What are you gonna do now?”

“We’ll bring him to the clinic –“

“Well, stupid, is there any clinic that’s still open right now other than the emergency clinic that does not take in draconians?”

Yuna blinked and looked around in the area. It was the centre of the whole forest. To the west –

 

**_To the west is my house!_ **

“My mom is a Draconian medical doctor, we can get to her if we run quick.”

Eunbi, though, is not pleased at all. “You are so damn lucky that we have to save Chanwoo because if not, I would have ripped your heart out and ate your flesh.”

* * *

 

Yuna and Seokmin ran as quick as they could to Yuna’s house. It was close from the forest where the kids were attacked, and as Seokmin was carrying the injured Chanwoo, Yuna opened the gate to the first floor. Her house has two doors. One at the second floor, and one in the first floor. The second floor will lead you to the house while the first floor would lead you to her mother’s clinic. Yuna, as far as she knows, grew up with her mom spending her day in the clinic or outside, probably giving free medications to poor people. As they entered the clinic, Yuna immediately headed for the light switch, eventually opening the lights and right next to it was the telephone for the second floor. Yuna dialled their landline upstairs and in three rings, her younger brother, Seonho, answered the call.

“Noona, what’s with everything down there? Why did you open up the clinic?” He asked as he saw heard his older sister’s voice. “Noona, what’s wrong?”

“Quick, Seonho. We have a patient down here. Get Mom, quick!”

“R-right!” Seonho reacted quickly and in a few seconds, they could hear running footsteps from the stairs. Yuna’s mother, Yura, arrived with her coat on and a stethoscope on her shoulders. And for some reason, Seokmin’s eyes furrowed.

“Your Highness?”Seokmin asked which got Yuna’s attention easily. The fairy became highly suspicious of her mother, but now is really not the time to deal with whatever did Seokmin say. Chanwoo is losing a lot of blood, and it’s not normal for a draconian. It’s normal, though, to those who got attacked by fairy-magic based monster.

"Not now, dear Seokmin." Yuna's mother spoke once more before glancing to check on Chanwoo. "What happened to Chanwoo?"

"We were attacked, Mom."

Seokmin's eyes widened at Yuna. **_She just called Queen Yura her mom. Does this mean that the fairy the former Queen of Sky Dragons conceived is Yuna? THE Yuna, as in, my PARTNER Yuna? Not anyone else?_** Seokmin asked himself, glancing at Yuna's mother. "It was a fairy-powered monster. Chanwoo was bit by the monster while we were busy purifying it."

"Figures." She said before raising up Chanwoo's pants up to his knee. "Did he lose lots of blood?" She asked Moonbin, who was keeping pressure on his wound.

"Lots of it."

"We're going to need lots of Betamerine to get the bacteria from whatever bit him, but I had a rabies patient a few hours ago, so I don't have them now." Yuna's mom glanced at her daughter and said, "Honey, if you would be so kind, please take one of the kids and buy 50 packs of Betamerine from Longguo's family pharmacy."

Yuna nodded and Eunbi immediately followed her out, as she's the only one in the room who's not doing anything. As they left, Yuna's mom looked at their disappearing figures. She glanced back at Seokmin. "Seokmin, dear, if you would be so kind, don't call me like that in front of Yuna."

"Yuna's your daughter?" He asked. "The reason why you left the Sky Castle?"

* * *

 

Eunbi and Yuna rushed to the pharmacy, the Jin's. A family of white kitsunes. It was three blocks from Yuna's house, so it's pretty close. A childhood friend of Yuna's, Longguo, belongs to this family. He's a year older than Yuna, and he's in school, too. Last time she checked, he's in the same pack as Soonyoung.

She opened the door and found Longguo dozing off the counter -- something way too common for her sight. "Is he really sleeping?" Eunbi asked.

"He's alert enough to get some sleep while watching over the store." Yuna remarked as she tapped Longguo's shoulder. "Hey, wake up."

Longguo snapped up and opened his small, yellow eyes. When he recognized Yuna, his eyes changed back to brown. "Oh, it's Yuna."

"Who else would be coming over at 9pm but you?" He went over the counter and asked, "So what do you need?"

“Betamerine. 50 packs."

"Cool, now I have to go to the stockroom to get 10 more packs." He excused himself (not so nicely) and left Eunbi with Yuna. The female Strigoi wandered in the pharmacy. The pharmacy looks like how a pharmacy looks like. It has shelves of medicines, and a counter. There's also a refrigerator on the side that has water bottles and some drinks.

Eunbi sat on one of the chairs by the side and Yuna watched over her, asking, "You three must be real close."

"Isn't that obvious already?" Eunbi flatly responded. "You've seen us fight together, isn't that enough source of stuffs for you?" Yuna was about to reply some badass reply to her but Eunbi was not going to let her speak. "What's with your Mom? I just saw Seokmin-sunbaenim call her 'your highness'. What's up with that?"

Yuna blinked, suddenly thinking about her mother. She, herself is curious about it. Ever since she was a child, her mother was a doctor, not a royalty or something. This was the first time someone called her mom a royal. Her dad, sure, is from a pure-blooded fairy family, that's for sure, so some servants from her father's side calls him 'Your Highness' and calls Yuna 'Your Ladyship'. "Honestly, I don't know." Yuna answered. "I feel like I don't know my mom anymore."

Yuna can feel Eunbi's empathy as her face hardened. "Everyone in the Draconian Council is a royal. They avoid dating fairies because it can cut their royal bloodline." Eunbi began explaining. "This is why Chanwoo broke up with Eunwoo." She added, including the fairy who messed with Moonbin. "Because he can't afford losing his damned status as a royal."

This time, Yuna's curiosity was piqued. "Why is the royal status so important for these dragons like it’s that of a big deal?”

Eunbi blinked, almost bewildered at her question. “Are you kidding me? To you fairies, that’s like your wings. It’s like a statement of power for dragons, so you can’t belittle the value of their royalty.”

**_So that’s what my mom gave up?_** “So why do some dragons take off their royalty if that’s so important?”

“Because of love. Don’t fairies take off their wings when they learn to love demons?” She asked, referring to the law of nature that when a fairy and demon marry, one of them must take off their wings or their horns.

Yuna just nodded in acknowledgement.

It was an awkward silence between them for a while, until the monster --- that monster from earlier appeared, knocking on the door. Yuna and Eunbi’s eyes went wide.

“It’s still alive?” Eunbi asked.

“Looks like it.” Yuna walked to the door, as if she was possessed and opened it. She raised her hand to the monster’s eyes and she closed her eyes. With all her magic, she formed a hole on her hand with fairy dust, and she counted to three in her head.

One,

Two,

Three.

On the third count, fairy dust and some sort of red magic flashed from the hole and destroyed the entirety of the monster, shocking Eunbi and shocking Eunbi. The formation of the magical hole isn’t new. It’s a type of magic taught to fairies at childhood but what’s new is the red magic – this is Yuna’s first time encountering something like that.

“Yuna.” Eunbi finally called her by her name. **_“That was dragon magic.”_**

**_What, I’m a dragon now, too?!_ **

* * *

 

As Yuna and Eunbi came back home, Yuna’s mom started to treat Chanwoo. Since they were quick, they were able to cure Chanwoo immediately. The family opened their guest room for the three boys and Eunbi would sleep with Yuna for tonight. Yuna has multiple revelations today – she just found out that her mom’s a past draconian royalty, and she was just able to use some type of dragon magic, which is weird, because the law of nature CLEARLY dictates that once a fairy and a draconian marry, the offsprings will immediately be fairies.

As everyone went to their rooms to wash up, Yuna stayed to talk things out with her mom. “Ma, can we talk?” She asked.

“Well, of course, Yuna. I’m sure you have lots of questions.” Her mom sat down on the dining chair and she motioned her daughter to do the same.

As Yuna sat, she sent out her first question quickly, too. “So you’re a royal dragon.”

“Yeah.” Her mom answered.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You didn’t ask, sweetheart.”

“Isn’t that already a given? To tell your kids who you really are?”

“I thought I’d tell you if you found out.”

“What kind of royal are you?”

This time, her mom began thinking quietly. “I was the Queen of the Sky Dragons.”

“And you gave that up just to be with Dad?”

“I love your father.”

“But not yourself?” To be honest, Yuna never checked her mom and dad’s strings, now, she suddenly had the courage to check it. “Where’s Dad?”

“In his library.”

“Call him down, please.” Yuna’s mom stood up and went upstairs to call her husband and when they did come down, the first thing Yuna checked is their strings – red. It’s true love. Yuna sighed as she decided to get things over with. “Second agenda, I used dragon magic earlier.”

Well, this caught the parents’ attention. But for some reason, they didn’t want to talk about it. “Honey, maybe it’s just the strengthening of your skills.” Her father reasoned. “When I was in high school, I was able to use fox magic as well.”

Yuna blinked, believing her father. Well, almost, but yeah, she wanted to believe him. For some reason, she doesn’t want to change the course of fate. And she feels like if she talks more about this topic, she will divert fate’s course and everyone will be affected. “Okay.” She plainly said then she excused herself and retreated to her room.

When her parents heard her close the door, Yuna’s mom heaved a heavy sigh. “Samuel, what do we do now? Yuna’s beginning to exhibit dragon powers despite her ethnicity as a fairy.” She hugged her husband and she began to weep. “Not to mention that Seonho’s not showing fairy traits but draconian traits, opposite to what Lucy is showing.”

Yuna’s father held his wife’s head and caressed it. “Yura, don’t worry, everything will be fine.”

“Our fear is becoming true, my dear. The prophecy. –“

“Shh!” He cut his wife off from speaking. “The prophecy is not true.”

“I sure hope it is, my dear.”

The couple hoped that no one heard what they just said, but it was too late.

 

Seokmin heard everything.

* * *

 

Seokmin passed through Yuna’s door, sliding it open before he leaves the house. “You’re becoming more interesting as time goes by, Yuna.” He leaned on the frame and closed it back as he set off to the Southern part of Busay Falls, to meet Yugyeom, the only person who can possibly know about Fairies, Dragons, and the actual situation between them.


	16. Lessons

Chapter 16 – Lessons

* * *

After a few days of training and trying to instil defence on the four packs Yuna is set to train, the day of the elimination has finally arrived. Honestly, looking around the hall, every club is around the corner. The Busay Entrepreneurs are there, selling popcorns and snacks. The Busay Cadets are also there, looking around the area for any danger, and that includes a flying-around Youngbin. Yuna also saw Byullie-unnie flying around in the cadet uniform so she figures that Byullie must be a member of the said club. Speaking of Yuna and her pack, the six packmates just entered the hall and chose their seats. From their seat, they were able to see one more club, the Busay Commentators, who are set to commentate about matches and the Battle Committee, who are meant to regulate and score the matches. Yuna sat next to Seokmin, aka the usual seating arrangement, and Seokmin brought soda and popcorn with him. “How was your week, Yuna?” He asked his partner.

“Hey, at least it’s just my Monday that was kinda hellish for me, I mean, I found out that my mom used to be the Queen of Sky Dragons and it was a mess, too.”

**_I found out lots of things about you, too._** Seokmin told himself as he glanced at Yuna and gave her a nod. “You’ll get through it.”

“Oh yeah, speaking of that night, where the heck did you run off to that night?” She suddenly asked. Seokmin’s face hardened and he just said,

“Yugyeom suddenly needed me, so I came there.”

Yuna nodded in understanding. “I see.”

“So what do your kids have?” He asked. “Like, who’s the strongest among the packs that you looked after for in the 4th year?”

Yuna began thinking. “You know that high-ranked angel in the fourth year? She’s never been defeated once.” But hey, it makes sense since Yewon, after all, is a high-level angel. “She’s like Chanwoo. They’re never been defeated once. And surprisingly, they didn’t face each other in the practice games. It’s like fate is working with their stats.”

“That’s cool.”

“I can see the two of these packs facing each other strongly in the games.” Yuna soon noticed Chaeyeon on the stands as well, selling popcorn. “I didn’t know Chaeng was in the Busay Entrepreneurs?”

“She’s not.” Luda flatly answered. “Her new boyfriend, Longguo is.”

“Longguo as in, the pharmacy Longguo?!” Yuna asked, almost suspicious. Her lousy childhood best friend **_CANNOT_** be dating the school’s number one it girl, right?

“Who else? It’s all over social media since last week!”

“Wasn’t she dating Seokwoo?” Dawon asked as she took a handful of popcorn from Yugyeom’s bucket.

“Until Seokwoo and Seungcheol did a Marvin Gaye.” Luda answered flatly once more. Yuna noticed this and she checked the strings. And her hunch was correct. Luda and Chaeyeon has a yellow string between them.

“Oh, you two had a beef between you, too?” Yuna asked.

Mingyu, who was sitting next to Luda, smirked, showing off his iconic canine tooth. “Chaeyeon sent me love letters after our modelling job. She got pissed.”

Luda elbowed Mingyu and rolled her eyes. “I would have let it slide until I found out that he’s been eating the chocolates she gave him, too.”

Seokmin just shook his head and sighed, “This is why dating is sometimes a pain.”

“Wow, I suddenly agree with you.” Yuna added as the couple began bickering.

“This is why our partnership is so meant-to-be, Yuna.”

“Is it? Well, you have a point.”

Dawon and Yugyeom, who are ultimately cringing at the two pairs next to them, as they were squeezed between the couple and the not-so-couple, just heaved heavy sighs. “Well,” Dawon began, pointing at Luda and Mingyu. “Exhibit A of a married couple, titled, ‘The Bickering’” then she pointed at Yuna and Seokmin. “Exhibit B, ‘The Understanding’. Hope you enjoyed the gallery today, good sir.”

Yugyeom smiled and laughed his head off, making Dawon laugh the same. Dawon glanced at Yuna, then to her hands. Yuna caught Dawon staring at her hands and asked, “What is it, Dawon?”

Dawon smiled it off and shook her head. “No, nothing.”

“Okay.” Yuna shrugged and looked back at the centre. The hall is divided into four battlefields with corresponding elements; Water, Earth, Fire and Air. For the first battle, the groups will send out one representative to take on the battle of elimination where they will be randomly paired with a group. Everyone’s matches were quite predictable, honestly. In Yuna’s kids, too. She can already tell who’s gonna win and who’s gonna lose as they enter the two battlefields. It’s Chanwoo vs Minghao from Yoo Taeyang’s pack in their class in the Fire Battlefield, then Kevin Moon vs Park Jihoon, a third-year, for the Water Battlefield, Yewon vs Wonwoo, Seungcheol’s friend in the Air Battlefield. Ji Changmin vs Daisy, a third-year is on the Earth Battlefield. Yuna glanced at Seokmin. “You’ve seen Chanwoo’s other form, right? What colour is he?”

“He’s a red hydra.” Hydra is a type of dragon that has three heads, while the colour red symbolizes fire, most likely, Chanwoo’s element.

“You’re a crystal-blue oriental, right?” Yuna asked Seokmin. An oriental is the typical dragon we would usually see, the most common ones, and the crystal-blue colour symbolizes ice, which is Seokmin’s element. He nodded in acknowledgement of her knowledge.

“You know a lot about us dragons.”

“My mom is a dragon, remember?”

“Point.” As he said that, a whistle was heard through the hall and the four battles begin simultaneously. The elimination was quite quick for Chanwoo and Yewon. Those two might just be the most powerful Unnaturals in their year. Chanwoo didn’t even bother to change forms. She doesn’t know if Minghao is just weak – wait, he’s not. The guy’s a kitsune, not to mention that he already has six tails up. Kitsunes’ powers depend on how many tails they have. They can have up to 12 tails, and 12-tailed kitsunes are usually at least a thousand years old. This means that Minghao should be half as powerful as a fully-grown kitsune. But from Minghao’s performance, Yuna doesn’t know.          

“Yuna, what did you teach Chanwoo?” Dawon suddenly asked.

Yuna raised a brow. “Their team sucked at defence so I focused on defence.”

“Chanwoo’s defence is impenetrable!” Luda exclaimed while Yuna noticed Mingyu sneakily putting his arm over her shoulders. “I don’t know if it’s because he’s a dragon, but good work, Yuna.”

“Thanks.” It didn’t take Chanwoo long before he defeated Minghao. Yuna heard chattering from behind her. All of them were exclaiming about Chanwoo’s improvement, and how he managed to close off his one and only black hole – that is, defence. Some kids were talking about how he was destroyed by Kim Yewon last year because Chanwoo couldn’t defend himself.

Speaking of Yewon, she was quick to destroy Jeon Wonwoo. Looks like the latter didn’t see Yewon coming. And besides, Yewon can fly. They’re in an Air Battlefield, Wonwoo was definitely at disadvantage. Yuna analyzed Yewon’s speed. **_She’s gotten really fast._** Looks like all the flying activities worked out for her. Yewon stayed on air for a few minutes until she and Yuna met eyes. The angel gave the fairy a thumbs-up and a smile. Yuna smiled back, and she noticed that Chanwoo’s flying as well, and he gave her a slow nod. She felt a nudge coming from Seokmin and her partner has this undeniable smile – the smile Yuna loves so much.

“He’s thanking you.” He pointed at Chanwoo. “That’s how dragons thank others.”

“Really?” Yuna brightened and she pulled out her fairy pen. She wrote on air, addressed to the two fourth-years, saying, **_‘You’re always welcome.’_** Chanwoo and Yewon looked at one another and shared a nod as they flew back to the ground. This made Yuna really happy, too.

But her kids’ games aren’t over yet. Kevin and Changmin are still playing. Kevin, as we all know, is an omega werewolf, while Changmin is a Strigoi. She knows Kevin can win. Kevin is smart and strong. He was just unlucky during practices. He was always against either Eunbi, Chanwoo or Yewon. The other kids jokingly call him the icon of misfortune. Changmin is pretty strong, too, and lucky.

“Kevin’s gotten quick.” Yugyeom remarked and Mingyu nodded at him. “He was a lazy-bone in the past.”

“Like Yugyeom.” Mingyu added.

“Shut up, man.”

Finally, Kevin transformed to his wolf form – he finally got pissed for some reason and he hit Jihoon with one go. His hand grew really large and he slapped Jihoon. The crowd clapped and Jihoon’s fans cried out while Kevin’s fans cheered. Kevin **_is_** handsome, though. He looked up and met Yuna’s eyes and gave her a thumbs-up, similar to Yewon. Changmin also finished when he used a shadow technique that he was mastering since the beginning of training. Yuna couldn’t help but grin widely – all her kids got in.

* * *

 

After the elimination round was a thirty-minute break. The pack separated into three partners, as always. Mingyu’s twin sister is in town so he’s meeting with her for a bit with Luda while Dawon and Yugyeom came out to buy more food for the six of them. Seokmin and Yuna were left in their seats. Since the official matches will start after the break and everyone’s off from their classes, the hall will soon be packed, but Yuna can’t hold something off – her bladder.

“Seokmin~” She called, making him raise a brow and take his eyes from his book – or folder, whatever. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

He nodded simply then diverted back his attention to the book. “Come back quickly.”

“I will.” Yuna stood up, and dashed to the bathroom. The bathroom is close to the waiting room. She’s seen Soonyoung rushing to the bathroom, as well. She took her pee for a bit, and as she was about to open the door to get out of the cubicle, she heard something.

“The trio’s pack will definitely destroy us. We must do something about this, Seolhyun.” That made Yuna’s ears ring. Why, no one messes with her kids and gets away with it!

“I know what to do. I stole a spell from Minki –“ **_Minki that idiot!_** Yuna mentally facepalmed as she listened more. “It can awaken the evil inside Moonbin even without the full moon.”

“Will it work?”

“I tried it on Kenta, and it did. It can work on Moonbin, too.”

“Then, can we assure a win?”

“Of course we can.” The two girls chattered away and when Yuna thought it was clear, she immediately ran and returned to their seat. As soon as she sat down, Seokmin can already feel her tensed shoulders. He poked it a few times until she finally got a hold of herself.

“Yuna, you okay?” Seokmin asked.

She faced him and said, “My kids are in danger.”

Seokmin’s eyes widened and he asked, “What do you mean?”

“Some girls stole a spell from Minki, I think it’s Awaken, and they’re planning to use it on Moonbin in the first round.”

“What? How can they steal a spell?”

“Minki’s the fairy of generosity. He leaves out his spells in the open in his office. Anyone who has access to the office can learn his spells if they want to.” Yuna ran her hand through her hair and Seokmin stared at her. He placed a hand on her shoulder and reassured her,

“Your kids will be fine.” He squeezed her arm and she nodded.

But deep inside, Yuna was already devising a plan to stop this evil.

* * *

 

After the break, the next battle began. The battlefield changed. It’s now just one field of rocks. It will be a Pack vs Pack match, 6 vs 6. Dongho was on the stage, announcing who’s going to fight first. “First match, Yoon Jeonghan’s Pack vs Yeo Hwanwoong’s Pack!”

**_Here they go._** Yuna checked the strings – there were two girls who had yellow strings connected to Eunbi. One of them is Seolhyun. The girl from the bathroom. She recognized her face since she was in Luda’s data as one of the prettiest girls in school.

Seokmin also can’t help but feel uneasy seeing Yuna tensed up. He mustered up all his courage and pulled her hand into his. She looked up to meet his eyes. He noted that her eyes are filled with nothing but worry. He can see how much she cared for the fourth-years. “Seokmin,” She bit her lower lip and Seokmin pulled her into his arms for a hug – he can’t help it anymore. “Wha – what?!”

“The kids will be fine. You trained them. They’re much stronger than how you think they are.” He looked down to meet her eyes, which are now filled with tears. “They will be fine, Yuna.”

She nodded and returned his hug as Dongho whistled, a signal for the games to start. She pulled away and watched closely. The match appeared to incline on the fourth-years but Jeonghan’s pack is no joke. She saw Sojung fight for the first time in this pack, as well. Yuna is amazed by Sojung’s swordsmanship. No wonder Seungcheol fell hard for her.

Her kids won’t lose without a fight, though. Chanwoo, still in his human form, managed to weaken some of the other members of the pack. The others were also strong enough, and Eunbi never lost her smile in the game – they were playing well.

But soon, she noticed Seolhyun coming closer to Moonbin. Reading her lips, Yuna could tell –

 

She chanted the Awaken spell. The same spell Yuna uses to wake up their evil sides and try to overcome it. It wasn’t long until Moonbin turned against his allies.

“Bin.” Yuna managed to say. Her heart began thumping hard – but so did the strings. The golden string between the kids began tightening. It was becoming stronger that how it should be. It’s becoming ready for extraction. But as it was getting ready for extraction, Yuna began seeing black streaks between the three. Death is coming. She can see Dawon alarmed, too.

“Yuna, one of the three kids are going to die.”

“Dawon!” Seokmin scolded her and he shook his head.

Chanwoo and Eunbi began fighting Moonbin. “Yeeun, Eunseo, Woong, get the other pack, we’ll deal with Bin.”

Hwanwoong squeezed Eunbi’s arm. “Alright, we’ll do our best.”

The pack separated into two and Eunbi and Chanwoo faced Moonbin. “Eunbi-ya.”

“Yeah?”

“What was that song we learned in prep school when we were kids?”

“Oracion? The one with the weird humming stuffs?”

“Bin loved that song more than we ever did.” Chanwoo choked as he looked at Moonbin’s wolf eyes, cold and ready to kill. “Bin, he loved that because that was the song that brought the three of us together.”

Eunbi nodded a sad smile. “Are we going to end here?”

Chanwoo sighed. “If I ever turn back to my human form, please tell Bin that I did well.”

“C-Chanwoo!” Eunbi was too late to stop Chanwoo. He transformed to his dragon form. He now has three heads, and his scales are stronger than how they should. The whole hall was at awe with this transformation. All but Seokmin and Eunbi. The girl curled her fists and tears began to fall from her eyes. The reason why Chanwoo never transformed to his Hydra form is because he doesn’t know how to transform back to his human form. He can control it, but he can’t go back to being human. She had her right hand and she touched one of Chanwoo’s necks and kissed it softly. Her tears fell from her eyes and she fell on her feet. With Chanwoo’s tail, he flapped Eunbi out of the picture. And he started to attack Moonbin.

 

Yuna couldn’t take it in, as well.

“BIN!” She yelled at the top of her lungs. “MOON BIN! THE DRAGON YOU’RE ATTACKING RIGHT NOW, THAT’S CHANWOO! THE PERSON YOU SAVED! THE PERSON YOU CARED FOR ALL THESE YEARS!” At that time, Eunbi rose from the ground and looked up at Yuna. “THAT DRAGON IS THE CHANWOO YOU LOVED SO MUCH!” Moonbin’s werewolf eyes now widened out of shock and he stared at Chanwoo. Eunbi stood next to Chanwoo.

“And I’m Eunbi.” She reached out her hand to Moonbin, and the crowd waited, yearned for Moonbin to take her hand.

.

.

.

.

.

And he did. He took her hand and faced the other pack on his wolf form. The spectators can swear that they’ve seen a smile on dragon Chanwoo. The crowd cheered and Yuna fell on her knees, crying, speaking. “Bin did it. He finally did it!” She threw herself in Seokmin’s arms and they hugged one another while the rest of the crowd cheered for the trio’s pack. The entire hall was yelling or crying,

Or maybe even both.

After the tight hug she got from Seokmin, he revealed something from his hand. A gold, sparkly heart. “You did it, too.”

Yuna internally cheered – She got her second heart.

* * *

 

Saturday evening. The games came to a close with the seniors winning the championship and the Trio’s pack taking the second place. Not that it was bad – Chanwoo began taking up medical potions that can help him control his transformations more while Moonbin learned how to control his wolf form. All was good for them, and Yuna can’t help but just be happy for her kids. She’s gonna buy her mom a new pair of pumps, too. After the final match, the Trio’s pack came up to her office, since she went straight there. “Hey.” The six kids came in and Chanwoo, who came in last had a box on his hand. The pack bowed a bit and they had large smiles on their faces. “Whoa, what’s with you, kids?”

“Yuna-nuna.” Chanwoo began. “Thank you.”

She smiled as she glanced at the gold rose in the vase by the shelf, together with the first gold rose and a blue rose. “No problem, kids.”

“We wanted to give you something.” Moonbin said as Chanwoo placed the box on her table. “We heard from Seokmin-hyung that you’re going to be buying your mom new shoes from the reward money.”

Yuna opened the box and her eyes widened. It’s a pair of heels. “The Queen is a size 7, right?” Eunbi asked. “I figured it out when we slept over your house.”

“Thank you, kids.”

“No, we should be thanking you.” Eunbi stated and the rest of the pack just nodded. “We would all be dead if you didn’t yell it all earlier.”

“And I wouldn’t have managed to control my wolf, too! Thank you, Yuna-nuna!” Moonbin brightened, and Yuna smiled at them as well. She realized one thing here. The love of friends. Indeed, it is something hard even between friends to understand. But looking at the trio made her realize that the love of friends is beautiful. Too beautiful that it may even be the most beautiful thing in this planet. Friends, cherished, and love. Three words that are synonymous enough to define friendship.

* * *

 

Mingyu gulped as he saw a familiar figure by the entrance. Three wolves. Three grey wolves walking to him. He kept Luda behind him as she said, “Once your family leaves Busay, I swear, I’d give you a Grammy for acting.”

“You too. We both deserve a Grammy Award.”

“Man, these lies have to stop when they leave.”

“Point.” Mingyu agreed. “Minkyung-ah!” Mingyu called.

One of the grey wolves transformed under the full moon to her human form. She’s really tall, like Mingyu. And her eyes are coloured grey. “It’s been a while, brother.”

“ ** _You too, sister.”_**


	17. 17 - Return

Chapter 17 – Returns

* * *

 

“These clothes are annoying and hellish as shit.” Seokmin helped Yuna out of the car. With her Chengpai, basically, moving is quite difficult. It’s long, and she’s supposed to pick up the ends of the dress. As if getting into this dress isn’t hard enough. “How did you guys manage to walk on these?!” Bewildered, she asked Seokmin as he just chuckled it off, helping her out of the car. The Dragon Parade just ended. IT was the finale, and it was good. Of course, there were plenty of out-of-control kids running around since it’s the full moon, but the fairies are all in hard work.

“It’s because we were so used in wearing these, Yuna.”

“Yeah right, you’ve been wearing pants.”

“And so is Dawon.” Yuna groaned as she got off the car and she saw her friends. Seokmin made a point – the other girls aren’t wearing long dresses like hers. “Don’t fret too much about it, you look good.” Seokmin whispered through her ears, startling Yuna.

Dawon smiled widely and interlaced her arms with Yugyeom, sensing some sort of romantic tension between Seokmin and Yuna. She had a smirk on and she looked up at Yugyeom. “Do you guys want to split? On pairs?”

Yuna sensed Dawon trying to matchmake and she rolled her eyes. “Look, Dawon, that plan, whatever’s running in the entirety of your brain, is **_NOT_** a good idea.”

Dawon raised her arm in defence. “I’m not planning anything, though.”

“Sure you aren’t, Dawonce’.” She joked with sarcasm, calling her by the nickname her batchmates began calling her “Let’s go get some drinks, dudes and dudettes. You see, your love fairy, is now craving for some good-ass human mojito.”

Mingyu raised a brow. “Do they even sell human mojito here? Last time I checked, they don’t sell human mojito unless it’s Human Week.”

“We have Draconian Mojito, though.” Seokmin suggested. “That’s a good shot, too.”

“Seokmin, only you can stand the spiciness of the dragon foods they served this week, and you know it.” Luda chided, making him shrug. “Do they have at least, regular Fairy Rum or _Tanduay Ice_ at the least?”

“I’m sure they have some, come on.” The pack went off to the stall, declared their orders and sat on a vacant seat. From their seat, they can still see some kids wilding, but it’s much more quiet this time. The two fairies ordered Fairy Rum while the others except Seokmin picked up Tanduay Ice. Seokmin picked Draconian Mojito, of course. It’s his favourite drink.

“Cheers!” The pack cheered. Yugyeom is evidently happy. He even stood up and took a one-shot. “Wow, this week finally finished! I’m so D O N E with this week. Can you believe it? I saw a Hydra, for the first time in my life, too. This week is so damn cool.”

Yuna rolled her eyes, totally contradicting his statement at the back of her head. “Not for me.” She said before sipping some of her drink. “This week is so tiring, finally, we’re gonna have regular classes starting this Tuesday.”

“Admit it, Yuna, it was worth it.” Mingyu joked as he took a sip of his own drink. “And we all got cash!” He showed off his canine teeth, making everyone smile. Not to mention Yuna also gained access to Dongho’s spellbook, which is to be delivered first thing this Tuesday. “And my family is in town, guys. My sis may show up –“

 

Jinxed.

A werewolf with grey eyes suddenly showed up. She’s tall, and she has red hair, which is different to Mingyu’s orange eyes and brown hair. From the looks of it, Yuna’s guessing that the hair’s in-born. She’s born a redhead. “As I was saying, my sister may show up anytime.” Mingyu stood up and smiled brightly. “Minkyung.” He greeted her before giving her a hug. Minkyung, as named now by our werewolf, hugged back and later shook hands with Luda. Luda returned it with a nod of acknowledgement. Yuna looked at the strings and there’s a white string – definitely family.

“Hi, you guys must be Mingyu’s pack.” She beamed. Yuna noticed that while Mingyu had these canine teeth, Minkyung doesn’t. “I’m Kim Minkyung, his twin sister.”

Seokmin was the first to give out his hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Minkyung.”

Minkyung raised a brow. “When did you transfer to Busay?”

“Ah, it was three years ago.”

“No wonder why I don’t know you. I left Busay after second year, so that’s why we probably didn’t meet.”

Yuna nudged Seokmin. “You didn’t start schooling here?” She asked with a whisper.

“I was homeschooled.”

Yugyeom only had a smile on his face as he stared at Minkyung. She smiled back at him. “It’s been a while, Gyeom.” **_Oh._** Yuna realized it quickly before looking at the strings. She’s right. Yuna’s right. Yugyeom and Minkyung are soulmates. Good for them, no bad omen with the strings.

“It has, Minkyung.”

Yuna nudged Dawon. She **_should_** know something about it, right? “So, what about them?”

“Exes.”

Yuna can only give an ‘oh’ and a nod. Minkyung soon shook hands with Dawon. “Dawonce, how are you?”

“The nickname died, Minkyung, and I’ve been fine.” Dawon smiled widely and after that, Minkyung went to Yuna and shook their hands together.

“You must be Yuna.”

 ** _Oh, that voice sounds familiar. But where on earth did I hear this voice?_** Yuna asked herself, but before anyone can grasp what’s up, Yuna just smiled widely. “Yes, I am. It’s nice to meet you, Minkyung.” She looked at Mingyu before letting go of Minkyung’s hand. “Mingyu didn’t tell me that he had a sister.”

“Sorry.” Mingyu scratched his head and apologized. “So, should you sit for a chat?”

“Why, thank you.” Minkyung sat down next to Mingyu and she called for Tanduay Ice, pretty much like everyone. She thanked the waiter as he gave her the drink with a smile.

“So, what brings you back, Minkyung?” Dawon asked.

“I’m finally transferring back, kiddos. My exile is so done.” Minkyung put her hands up and the others cheered. Yuna just clapped for her but she doesn’t really know why she was exiled – Yuna has no idea. Last time anyone checked, you don’t get exiled easily. There are two exiles, EFA or Exiles for Academy and EFF or Exiles for Family. Yuna doesn’t know which of the following and Minkyung noticed Yuna spacing out, thinking about it. “I’m an EFF, don’t worry.”

“She pushed Mingyu off to the waterfalls when they were in the first year because of her control.” Yugyeom explained. “It’s no biggie, but for wolf families, it quite it.”

“Figures, since she got an EFF for it.” Yuna nodded and continued listening to them. Apparently, Minkyung spent some time in Manila, and studied control there before transferring midway through the school year back here. She said she transferred back for Mingyu, although the twins didn’t necessarily elaborate on it, noting that it’s not necessary. The conversation lengthened, and soon, Yuna can feel Seokmin getting uncomfortable. Well, this isn’t him. Seokmin’s not the type to cower in a crowd. Yuna asked Dawon to switch seats with her, and she did so immediately, making Yuna sit next to Seokmin. She nudged him quietly, trying not to get attention from the rest who are still chatting. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“So, are you doing good?”

Seokmin nodded. “I just never knew Minkyung, that’s all.”

Yuna nodded in acknowledgement. “Should we go for a walk?”

He suddenly faced her, with a playful smirk in his face. “So, where will we go?” He began pulling on Yuna’s hair, which was curled for the occasion, and Yuna was taken aback, suddenly with wide eyes. “Why, is there something wrong?”

“T-“ She stuttered, and suddenly she felt something on her stomach, like it’s **_fluttering._** “T-Too close.” Was all she was able to say, making Seokmin’s hand retreat back to his drink. Quite flustered, as I may add. He sipped and looked away, oh and the awkwardness is stuffy.

“Hey.” Another voice interrupted the entire chat. It’s the pretty vampire from the seniors. She’s black-haired and she’s pale as snow. Anybody would mistake her for Snow White. She’s insanely pretty, too. “Hi, Minkyung.” She greeted Minkyung first. “I see your exile has been lifted?”

“Nice seeing you too, Bae Joohyun. Or, well, should it be Irene Bae-Kim, soon?” Minkyung smiled and hugged Joohyun. Seokmin and Yugyeom had their brows raised for an impending explanation. “Oh, right. Joohyun-unnie here and her fiancée, Minhyuk-oppa are getting married by the end of the semester.” The others clapped and congratulated her and she just gave a shy smile.

 ** _So she’s THAT Joohyun._** Yuna thought to herself.

 _Yep, that’s Joohyun, Seungcheol’s ex, see also: The number one vampire and hottest vampire in this county. Also, see also: The richest person in this whole place right after Seungcheol, you’re welcome, Yuna._ Yuna rolled her eyes when Luda read her mind again, like that’s anything new, though.

_We talked about getting into our minds, remember?_

_Yeah but your thoughts are too loud, Yuna._ Luda shrugged and Yuna just shook her head.

“Anyway, I won’t take too much of your time, and I’d just want to let you kids know that the Bae Night will be happening in two weeks time.” Joohyun explained. “The annual party.” She smiled at one of them one by one. Yuna noted on how scary (?) that smile may be. “I’ll expect your attendance.” Joohyun excused herself and left the kids on their own, all of them looking at one another.

“So it’s that time of the year, huh?” Yugyeom suddenly turned serious as he took a shot from his drink. “Bae Joohyun’s annual party.”

Yuna raised a brow – obviously since she didn’t have a social life until she was promoted. “What about this party?”

The others stared at her, like she did something wrong in her life. “You really don’t know?”  Luda asked. “This is why you should be spending time in my office.”

Yuna looked at the others, since Luda’s just probably gonna nag as always. Mingyu answered, finally. “It’s that one big party held in the Bae Mansion every year where it’s like the typical unformal drunken parties. And trust me, this party is filled with secrets.”

Dawon nodded. “I served my time as a fairy assistant, and the archiving we’ve done after the party is hellish.”

“And you will see lots of kids doing ‘ _it’_ ” Minkyung added. “And if you’re a love fairy, then it only means lots of kids getting purple strings.”

“I’m just lucky that I don’t archive couples.”

Minkyung grinned. “Point.”

“Oh, yeah!” Mingyu beamed. “There’s this curse, too. And as the love fairy, I think you’ll love this curse.” He glanced at Seokmin and Seokmin just sighed in defeat. Mingyu chuckled and said, “In this party, a couple who attends this party together will break up.”

“HAHAHAHA!” The three, Dawon, Yugyeom and even Luda chorused in laughter, making Yuna glance at Seokmin. Minkyung most likely doesn’t know anything about it and she’s as confused as Yuna here.

Yuna raised a brow and asked Seokmin, “Why?”

He heaved a heavy sigh. “Well, Chaeyeon and I broke up after the party.”

“Oh, so the curse’s legit?” Yuna gained nods from the rest of her friends and she shrugged. “Well, if everyone’s hormones are up in the sky for that party, why not, right?”

The others laughed and continued the night – the end of the dragon week.

* * *

 

Tuesday didn’t come that slow. Two nights of sleep and suddenly, it’s Tuesday already. Yuna’s morning started quite well, honestly. Her day wasn’t bad or anything. It actually started with Dongho’s spellbook. She acquired the spellbook first thing in the morning, as he promised. She was in homeroom class when she began reading through the book. The book, as noted before, came from the City of Spells. That city owns all of the special and secret spells the region has. Some of these spells can be found in Luda’s spellbook, too, but not all. Of course, Yuna would start at the easier spells. She just needs to memorize the incantations and have enough energy and wing power to form the spell. One of the easier spells includes the awakening spell, some common growth spells, some necromancy spells and some ‘talking-to-the-dead’ spells. She flipped over to the secret spells almost immediately. The pages for the secret and special spells are divided according to virtue. Yuna flipped quickly to the “LOVE” page then the first spell she saw is the **_Rite of Cutting._** Yuna raised a brow immediately at this spell. Unlike the easier spells, this requires something more than just an incantation – it requires the assistance and the blood of a pure-blooded vampire. “ _Rite of Cutting?”_ She asked herself, before she got answered by the following paragraph.

The Rite of Cutting is a spell that rightfully cuts a **_red string._** The red string of fate. Yuna’s eyes widened as she saw this sentence. The Rite of Cutting can only be done once in a Love Fairy’s life. It also needs a pre-requisite. The person who’s going to have their string cut must have someone they can switch strings with. The Rite of Cutting is connected to the next spell, the Rite of Re-attachment, which should be done almost immediately in order to attach the cut string. Yuna wonders who could have the heart to cut the red strings and switch it to another.

“You got the spellbook?” Luda asked as she sat on her seat in front of Yuna. “So how was it?”

“You know this spell?” Yuna asked as she showed Luda the Rite of Cutting spell.

Luda raised a brow at Yuna. “Yeah, of course I do. That’s the spell you love fairies use to cut red strings, right?”

“I’ve only seen this now. All along, I thought we can’t and shouldn’t cut strings no matter what.”

Luda smirked. “Well, your life just got a little more complicated.”


	18. Secrets

**_CHAPTER 18 – SECRETS_ **

* * *

 

After the morning classes is the favourite part of any other student – breaktime. And where else would our favourite pack spend their precious breaktime? Of course, where else will it be, in Yuna’s office , of course – the only office with air conditioning. Yuna is browsing the spellbook, Luda was busy dissing the boys and the boys were busy writing down parts of Luda’s dictionary. Dawon, on the other hand, is reading some of Yuna’s books.

Yuna is actually stressed. And right now, honestly, the last thing she really needs is a spell that can cut down strings – as if the mess she’s in (see: her ancestry) isn’t enough of a bad story. Really, the Rite of Cutting is such a mess of a spell. Well, who has the hots to really cut down a perfectly-good-string? She shut the book quite loudly, as we may add, to the point that it got the rest of the packs’ attention. Apparently, right now, the other kids are playing UNO cards. That one card game that is capable of destroying friendships. Yugyeom got it from his cousins when they came back from the human town nearby. They’re all enjoying it, even Dawon is joining in!

“What are you all doing?” Yuna asked as she raised a brow at them.

“Playing?” Yugyeom asked.

“Obviously, though?” She snapped, and Yugyeom was taken aback, and so are the other kids to the point that Seokmin and Mingyu both stood up and were about to try and stop them in any case Yuna throws some sort of spell. “What?!”

“You need a chill pill.” Seokmin began as he held on her arm to maybe calm her down. “Hey, what’s wrong?” On his voice, Yuna actually began to chill out and calm herself down. Getting pissed should be out of the equation as it doesn’t really help on anything.

“This spell is so hellish.” She looked at her watch and then at the calendar. “What class do you have after break?” She asked Seokmin as he raised a brow in return.

“Vacant, why?”

“Let’s go for a jog.”

Seokmin raised a brow. OF COURSE HE’D RAISE A BROW. First of all, Yuna was deadass mad and pissed then suddenly, the girl turns 360 and she asks for a jog? “You’re insanely moody these days.”

“Are we going on a jog or not?” Seokmin shrugged and just followed her out – afraid to get lashed at anytime soon, leaving the rest of the pack heaving a heavy sigh, except maybe for Dawon who suddenly had a suspicious smile plastered across her face. Of course, this didn’t save her from getting noticed by Yugyeom, who has been carefully observing her for the past few days.

In his eyes, Dawon’s becoming strange as time goes by.

 _She’s hiding something._ Yugyeom told himself. Every now and then, he would notice her staring at their hands – that bad habit Yuna has, but hey, the girl sees strings, it shouldn’t be new.

 _But if Dawon can see strings, then it means –_ he shook his head. _No, it can’t be. She’s not it. She’s not her._ He shook his head once more as Dawon noticed him. “Are you okay?” She asked him.

“Well, I am.” He nodded and faked a smile. Now, Dawon is **_INDEED_** suspicious.

* * *

 

Jogging isn’t fun, especially not for the fitness-hating Seokmin. Needless to say, he HATES P.E. But right now is not the time to hate PE as his partner’s only way of releasing stress is through running _when she has wings._ He thinks they should be flying, not running. He tries to keep her company, though, even if she outruns him not just once but maybe a lot of times.

“Your siblings, what’s your age gap?” He asked as he finally caught up with her.

“They’re both born in 2002, so 5 years?” He nodded as she asked this time, “Any siblings for you?”

Seokmin shook his head. “I’m an only son.”

Yuna finally slowed down after a while. “You know, Seokmin, you’re weird.”

“Me? What did I do?”

“There are days when you’re like, super sweet and shy, the flower-boy type, and there are days where you’re like our senior, Dongho, very very manly and then there are days that you’re like this.”

“Like what?”

“That you look at me like I’m the prettiest girl in this planet.”

“Why, are you not?” _Oh shit why did I say that?_ Seokmin cursed as he stopped his tracks. And when it processed through Yuna, she stopped, as well.

She blinked before walking back to him. “Did you just try to flirt with me?”

“Subtly.” He admitted. He flushed to a deep shade of red, making Yuna chuckle a lot and look at her hands before looking back at his. “What are you staring at?”

“I thought you’re only cute when you smile your gummy smile.” She smiled. “But you look cute blushing, too.”

He blinked. “That’s mean.”

“It’s not.”

“It is!” She laughed out loud and Seokmin felt relieved. She’s moody these days, and the spell of cutting strings did not help, obviously. “Wait, did you just flirt with me?”

Yuna nodded. “I think I did.” She cheered before running off for another run.

“Choi Yuna, you don’t just flirt with me and run off!” He began chasing her tracks and they both laughed. “Hey, you have to compensate me!”

Yuna looked back and was about to roll her eyes when something happened.

Her eyes widened.

Her ears opened.

Her legs weakened.

And she can only hear one thing.

**_“The White Strzyga fated to oversee all Holy Wars, a Vampire strong enough to make a whole city fall asleep, a Fairy powerful enough to carry powers of a dragon and a Dragon who gained immunity over fairy powers will awaken the sleeping tiger and the second holy war – this fairy shall be a witness to it.”_ **

It kept repeating and repeating through her ears. She can’t hear anything else but the rusty sound of an old man. It sent shivers to her spine, and she was out of it. It was like she’s in a deep well with no light to see and no way to climb out.

“Yuna!”

A yell.

A yell brought her out of the well.

The yell of the partner of hers. “Seokmin.” She heaved a heavy sigh, eyes still wide from the voice. **_I heard that voice before._** She doesn’t know where – but she’s sure. She’s heard of it before. “Someone spoke through my head.”

Seokmin raised a brow and led her to the wooden bench. “What do you mean?”

“The white strzyga, a vampire, a fairy and a dragon will awaken the sleeping tiger and the second holy war, the fairy will be a witness.” She confessed. “Someone talked through my head and told me that.”

Seokmin froze for a bit. That sounds familiar to him, too. “Ey, that must be a hallucination.”

Yuna blinked. At some point, she just wants to believe him. She nodded and stood back up. “Well, should we go back to our flirt-off?” She chuckled as she ran off first. Seokmin smiled a cheeky smile but he kept her words – just in case he encounters it again.

* * *

 

When Yuna calmed down, she and the girls, with Mingyu, headed for the school’s fourth floor. They got a job. An archiving job, but the two other boys counted themselves out. They said they had a research assignment to do for Yugyeom’s thesis.

The archiving job is from Youngbin. He pays well, and he’s definitely generous with his jobs, so this job is a win-win situation for all of them. Youngbin was waiting for them in front of the stock room.

Uh-oh.

Yuna and Luda doesn’t like how this looks.

As they were approaching Youngbin and the stock room, Yuna lightly elbowed Luda. “You do know what the stock room means, right?”

Luda nodded. “It means a fairy had at least a month-long worth of archive backlog.”

The two younger fairies rolled their eyes as they saw Youngbin smiling brightly as if his messiah has come to save him. “My favourite fairies!” He cheered as the girls grimaced. Even Mingyu’s annoyed.

“How long is your backlog?” Yuna asked, with crossed arms as Youngbin’s playful smile crept across his face.

“Hehe, 5 months.” He said, raising his hand. Everyone sighed. Well, Youngbin picked the perfect pack – two of them are fairies who have knowledge in archiving, one used to be a fairy assistant and one’s now a fairy assistant. “Well then, we should get started, right?” He opened the door to the stockroom and everyone went in. Youngbin’s the fairy of Leadership, the biggest virtue for all fairies. But the thing is, everyone’s archives go through him – the archives he reviews before sending it to the town’s fairy of Knowledge are the Knowledge, Truth, and Justice archives. “Should we do one month each? You just need to put the data into another folder that would summarize all three archives.”

“Let’s do that and get this over with.” Luda agreed and so did everyone. Youngbin passed one box per student and they began archiving. The fairies were fast, actually, since they all own fairy pens. Dawon’s quick, too. But Mingyu’s just on an average pace. They were quiet for the first thirty minutes – everyone’s busy.

After 30 minutes, Youngbin was the first to finish his archive. He set the folder on a table and decided to get drinks for the pack. When he got back, Luda just finished working on hers. “Good job.” He passed her a drink and placed one bottle per student as well.

“Thanks.”

“So, are you kids coming to Joohyun’s party?”

Yuna just finished as well and she picked her bottle up and joined the two other fairies. “They said it’s an annual thing.”

Youngbin nodded. “It is, actually. Joohyun’s the biggest picture in the whole town, and every other Unnatural here is looking forward to this party.” He glanced at Dawon. “Dawon and I actually met each other for the first time in that party. I was charmed.”

Yuna threw both of them a glance. A weirded one. “Did you two date?”

“Yes.” They chorused, making the two other fairies mouth an ‘oh’ each.

“Did you date everyone?” Luda asked.

Dawon shook her head. “I only dated twice. Hwang Minhyun and him.”

The two fairies chorused another ‘oh’ and Youngbin changed the subject quickly. “So did you hear about the rumours about that party, though?”

“I’ve only heard about the break-up rumours. And my partner, Seokmin, appears to be a victim of the same curse.”

“That’s not legit, though.” Youngbin shrugged. “Although it’s true that archiving after the party IS hellish. The ‘a couple breaks up after the party’ curse ain’t true. Rather, I think it’s more like a ‘someone gets bad luck after the party’  curse rather than the former.” He began explaining, making the kids listen more. “For the past nine years I’ve been in this school, there’s always someone getting the bad luck. It’s just that for the past three years, the unlucky ones are couples. Examples are Sojung and Seungcheol, Dawon and Minhyun then last year, Seokmin and Chaeyeon, so they safely assumed that it’s a couple.” He crossed his legs. “I know the best tea in this county, though. Shall I?”

“I love tea.” Dawon apparently finished as well, so she sat near the fairies to listen to Youngbin.

“Who doesn’t, though?” Youngbin began. “Do you know that cute little three-year-old running around the school with her vampire and strzyga parents?”

Luda raised a brow. “Who, Minyi?”

“Minyi?” Yuna asked.

“Chandong-sunbae and Byullie-unnie’s daughter.” Luda explained.

Yuna remembered who the little girl is immediately. “Ah! The cute girl!”

Youngbin nodded. “Yes, her. Did you know that Minyi is NOT Chandong’s daughter?” Everyone’s eyes widened.

“But they look alike.”

The older fairy shrugged. “I know, right? But the thing is, four years ago, after the party, Byulyi suddenly disappeared and came back after a year with Chandong. Of course, the hood safely assumed that Chandong’s the father, but I don’t think that’s the case since one time, when Minyi got sick, we couldn’t transfuse Chandong’s blood with hers.” He explained. “But that’s a secret between us, alright?”

The others nodded, including Mingyu who just finished archiving. “Do you know something about my sister, too?”

Oops, the air just turned serious. Youngbin looked up to meet Mingyu’s eyes. “Honestly, yes, I do.”

“ _What about Minkyung_?” Yuna asked through telepathy.

“ _Mingyu thinks Minkyung may have been possessed when she pushed him off the falls. He believes Minkyung has always been better than him in lots of stuffs. Control, wolves and other stuffs, so he thinks she couldn’t have done it.”_

“What do you know?”

“I know who may have took control of her.”

“Who?”

* * *

 

“Bae Joohyun.” Yugyeom concluded as he pulled another book from the bookshelf. “Honestly, Bae Joohyun is the only vampire powerful enough to know how to control other Unnaturals, and it just so happened that we saw Joohyun by the falls on that night. But she’s filthy rich and she can just get away with a hefty sum.”

“I see.” Yes, the two boys, who are currently in the Grand Library, where everything can be found, are talking about Minkyung’s exile. The Grand Library is the library where everything can be found. This library, though, is kept private, except to some town members, and this includes Wheein, who happens to be the caretaker’s daughter and the main investor’s son’s girlfriend.

“You two better hurry up.” Wheein warned them. “You’re already in the fifth book, and you still aren’t done?”

The two boys shrugged and Seokmin lowered his voice. “I kind of confessed to Yuna a while ago.”

“Took you long enough. So did the subtle signs work?”

Seokmin shrugged. “I don’t know. We suddenly started flirting while jogging.”

“Ya’ll are both weirdos.” Yugyeom looked up to the shelves. “We need to find a book about the relationship of fairies and dragons.”

“Right.” Seriously, Seokmin doesn’t know why Yugyeom’s obsessed with this. He works with him because he needs to know about Yuna, but he doesn’t know why Yugyeom’s working on this in the first place. Seokmin pulled an old-looking book and he opened it, looking for a page where fairies and dragons co-exist. This is why there are times that Seokmin just wants to borrow Yuna’s fairy pen. As he was flipping through the pages, a lone page fell on the floor. It must’ve been torn from another book, but somehow, whatever’s written on it shocked Seokmin.

**_“The White Strzyga fated to oversee all Holy Wars, a Vampire strong enough to make a whole city fall asleep, a Fairy powerful enough to carry powers of a dragon and a Dragon who gained immunity over fairy powers will awaken the sleeping tiger and the second holy war – this fairy shall be a witness to it.”_ **

_It’s Yuna’s hallucination._


End file.
